Quote:
Originally Posted by DeluxeMoustache
And Gio was a top player until Andersson was promoted
It’s not just one side of the street that is dirty here
Father Time is coming for Gio and Rasmus’s abilities have perhaps been overestimated
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I just don't agree with this, regarding Gio. He won the Norris same year the Flames got smashed by the Avs in the playoffs. That's 2 full years ago right? He came off that bicep tear, worked like hell to get his game back, and had a really strong year. In the playoffs, he got walked around (wound up kneeing Landiskog if I remember right) by the Avs fast skating, puck-carrying attackers. That was where I started watching both the team, and most especially, Giordano, in terms of "Are they slow?"
The next year began with Game 1 against ... the Avs. And Peters had all summer to develop a strategy, the team had months to get ready for it, and they got absolutely wrecked, totally skated around, it was just game 6 of the playoffs with a 4 month break between! And the rest of that year, it was really noticeable that Gio had lost a pace, the faster players in the league get around him a lot, and his pinch-and-recover abilities were not as sharp.
This year, he's looked slow, old, pretty bad in a lot of games. We saw the best of Gio in the first couple Sutter-coached games. But it was an unsustainable flash.
If you want to couch this in terms of D partners, I'd be a lot happier saying Gio was protected by a fleet-footed Brody in transitional play (and Brody was protected by a stalwart Gio in their d zone play). A good partnership. I don't think Rasmus is making Gio bad, it's more that he can't cover for Gio's lapses the way Brody could, and those lapses are more frequent and worse this year on top of it.
Is Rasmus fantastic in all phases? No, we are seeing some bad decisions from him this year. But the idea that he is the key factor in Gio's regression ... to me it's been obvious for a long time that Gio had peaked.
The defense looks really mediocre this year, thank God for Tanev (who has had an obvious and beneficial effect on Hanifin's game too). I think Ras is capable of being a top 4 guy, but in all honesty, I think Gio is bringing Ras's game down a notch. I think the team needs a top pairing left side defenseman at this point.