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Originally Posted by GioforPM
And Brodie has said what he prefers. However, is this a situation where his mistakes are related to that, is he letting a preference get in the way of a positive move or can he simply not play that side well? And does it even matter?
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This is a situation where a lot of things are cascading. LHD/RHD is part of the problem, but no one is saying it is exclusively the problem:
- No
true Top 4 defense partner who can both defend with early AND move the puck cleanly without forcing the puck to Brodie's side:\
Wideman
Hamonic
Stone
Engelland
The best player out of this group is Travis Hamonic, and he's a decent #5 defenseman at this point in his career (whether it was injuries, the evolution of the league, or earlier fluke seasons, he's not the player he was a few years ago). He is a turnover machine with brutal gap control most nights. Teams attack his half of the ice, they dump it on him and beat him to the puck, and the rare times he wins that race, he either throws it up the wall to the other team or to Brodie who is already covered by forecheckers. The rare nights where Hamonic simply manages his gaps, Brodie-Hamonic are our best pair. I wonder why.
-Smith's puck moving and Brodie, our most finesse defenseman (which is NOT inherently a bad thing), struggling with the situations that puts him in as he ends up getting pucks in a stationary position rather than on the move if he were just swinging behind the net.
- Brodie's preferred side:
Brodie's preferred shot is a slap shot, which works better on the right
Brodie's preferred pass is on his backhand, which works more often on the right
Brodie's stickwork and angling was most-refined playing on the right side. He has better stick and body positioning on that side of the ice. However he's not a sieve on the left side, despite his struggles in the last couple weeks (emphasis on weeks).
- A system that discourages defensemen from carrying the puck individually or using the middle of the ice, opting for short area passes to wingers along the walls, which results in Brodie simply not using his best assets (skating, stretch passing)
- Further to that system, it discourages defensemen from making offensive zone
plays out of the cycle. Know that set play that Hamilton thrives off of? He takes a pass to the point along the walls and does nothing but shoot it on net, regardless of traffic, regardless of how dangerous that point shot is? That is the extent our offensive zone utilization of defensemen. That doesn't work for a guy like TJ Brodie whose skillset is not exclusively consisting of "stationary point shots" (and most would agree that's the weakest aspect of his arsenel). That's not how he was one of the most dominant offensive 5v5 defensemen in 2015-16 (3rd best P/60 @ 5-on-5 in 2016 behind only Burns and Karlsson). Let me put it like this, here's a play from the 2014-15 season, in which a few players, Byron, Russell, Wideman, Monahan, Hudler all touched the puck.
https://streamable.com/s/36u46/eqjdec
Watch the movement of our defensemen, whether Brodie, Wideman, or Russell. That's how you take advantage of TJ Brodie's ability. And Mark Giordano's ability. And Brett Kulak's ability. And even Travis Hamonic's ability, despite his flaws. Contrast that to how Gulutzan wants them to play... stationary, uninvolved, 3 on 5 hockey. That's not on the players. That's why our only dangerous offensive defensemen in this system are Stone and Hamilton... that's just fundamentally wrong. Our system should not be catering to two defensemen while the rest suffer. That's exactly what Brent Sutter did with Jay Bouwmeester. And then Bouwmeester was good again after he left us.
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Luck. As crazy as this sounds, that is part of the issue. Confidence, bounces, focus, whatever you want to call it, this stuff wavers over an 82 game season. Even Alex Ovechkin had a season where he was a -35. Last year Brodie had stretches of awful luck and stretches of dominance. He was our best defenseman in the playoffs, despite all of the above.
- Brodie's preferred pass. Brodie loves to sweep the puck cross-ice to his partner for a one-timer from the blue line (or use his puck skills and skating to smoothly switch sides with his partner for a one-timer from the circle). It set up Giordano perfectly. It set up Stone perfectly. It doesn't work with Hamonic because Hamonic can't shoot as well as Giordano and Stone. And in Giordano's case, Hamilton doesn't set him up much, so he doesn't shoot much anymore either, at least not dangerously.
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Brodie is the best skater and arguably the best passer of the D corps. He should be able to adjust. Putting him on the opposite side will force a less talented guy like Stone or Hamonic to play their off-side.
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If Brodie is the best skater and best passer of the D corps, it stands to reason that he's the best skater and passer on his defense pair, and he is the one who handles the puck more often in the defensive zone. Why would you not want the best skater on the pair, the guy most likely to be making the breakout pass or skating the puck out of trouble, to be on the side that most benefits him?
Stone and Hamonic are, for the most part, simple players. They shovel the puck towards the walls hoping it bounces out of the zone. You can do that on your off-side or strong side because it's not a play where you have to use your full skillset and vision.
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If he really is that limited, maybe he should be traded for everyone's benefit.
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While we're at it, let's trade Gaudreau so we can build a team around size, because we want Darryl Sutter to come here and he's never had success with small players.
And "everyone's benefit"? That's such a hyperbolic claim. At absolute worst (right now) he's still the third best defenseman on this team and at best he's the best defenseman in this entire division. You don't trade that for "everyone's benefit". You trade that because you're mad that he's in a slump. The team's system has to fit its best players, and the secondary players have to be able to play that system.
The problem under Hartley was that the system fit the best players, but the secondary players were simply inept playing that system. The solution at that time was to replace scrubs like Bollig, Engelland with guys who fit better with the style that Hartley wanted to play. And we might have the roster now to do it. But instead we have brought in a coach who wants the team to play like a team that they are not. It's Giordano too, not just Brodie, that isn't himself. Mark Giordano is not himself, not the guy who was probably the best D in the league for a couple straight years at both ends. He's the 2nd pairing shutdown defenseman that Brent Sutter turned him into. And Gulutzan is trying to "JayBo" Brodie.
The problem, at its core is Brent Sutter. Or whatever his current name is. Glen Gultuzan.
