Quote:
Originally Posted by Enoch Root
that's the thing - he's been nothing but.
Anyway, I am out.
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There is defensive value in simply being able to retrieve dumpins, make a first pass, and hold the puck at the offensive blueline where another player might allow a zone exit.
Too much weight to the concept of defense is given purely to being a crease-clearer. I think the success of the Gostisbehere-Gudas pairing (at least in my recollection, maybe they were an analytically terrible pair) was because they offset each other's strengths and weaknesses - defensively. It's easy to say "one guy was a liability" but chances are that it was mutually beneificial... assuming it was.