"Captain" Mark Giordano

[Itse]

Didn't want to derail another thread so I'm quoting this here. I thought the question is interesting. Sure, there's a lot of talk how Giordano is a great locker room leader and all that, but in the end sports is about performance and on ice he's looking more like part of the problem than part of the solution.

Would a benching help?

Originally Posted by Northendzone

while i am not for benching gio, i was wondering if anyone can recall the last time an nhl captain was a healthy scratch?

I am totally for benching Gio. He's been terrible. I'm sure some advanced stats guys could find other stats, but he's got the 2nd worst +/- in the league, and by far the worst +/- on this team.

(In comparison Brodie is -2, which is fine for a key player in a bad team. Hamilton is -6, Wideman -9, Russell -10, Engelland +2 and Giordano -15.)

[Poe969]

To me, Gio looks like he's still plagued by the injury that kept him out last year. If he is, I don't know why he's still playing, he's clearly not playing well.

I do think he should be demoted to the bottom pairing and if he doesn't play better with limited ice time then scratch him for a game or two. It's not like we need him on the ice to get every point to fight for a playoff birth here....

As for the question about a captain being a healthy scratch, wasn't Brown a scratch last year for the kings at one point?

[Poe969]

nm

[polak]

I don't see how an arm injury makes you play like this:

[Rick M.]

Originally Posted by blender

I have noticed lately that Gio seems to making some very good plays, usually defensively, and also making plays like last season that aren't working as well, but are oh-so-close.

It is a fine line, and as such getting "it" back is altogether possible for a player of his calibre.

I believe he's overthinking things. By the time he decides whether to pass or shoot, the passing and shooting lanes have closed up. This, coupled with the fact that the Flames have a very predictable approach to the game, is hurting his game and he is not alone.

[Igottago]

You only bench Gio if you want to turn the locker room into a complete disaster. Benching your captain and well liked leader is a horrible idea. No better way to destroy whatever good feelings remain in the locker room.

Gio's game needs to pick up but you don't embarrass your captain like that. Right or wrong, Gio is the face of the franchise now. He'll get traded before he ever gets benched.

[saillias]

Originally Posted by polak

I don't see how an arm injury makes you play like this:

Haven't seen this, I had turned the game off by that point. Wow.

Brodie trying to be Ovechkin and failing miserably. Gio's patented falling and flailing around on the ice. Colborne chasing down Galchenyuk about a year after he gets the puck off the stick. Derp, derp and derp.

[PeteMoss]

To everyone saying bench him, you do realize the guy who replaces him is Ladislav Smid which no matter how Gio is playing makes the team approximately 1000 times worse.

It would be a ridiculously stupid move to bench the guy for all the reasons above and because it hurts the team.

Things are going bad so you want some kind of reaction to make it feel better. Is the team going to suddenly be good if you bench Giordano? What exactly does it do?

[Cali Panthers Fan]

Originally Posted by polak

I don't see how an arm injury makes you play like this:

All started with a brutal Brodie turnover that could have been easily avoided had he made a safe play and bounced the puck off the boards and out.

Giordano didn't look good there, but he had a quick 2 on 1 develop and had little time to react. He went for the puck and got caught. Had he made contact with the puck we'd all be lauding his effort to bail out his teammate. Either way, he forces the player wide and then they make a blind back pass to the 3rd man in. That was Hudler's man that was wide open in the slot.

Giordano is where he's supposed to be, in front of his net. He tried to make a play and failed, and had ZERO support from his teammates (although Colborne does manage to take his man ok). The actual blame for the goal should go to Brodie for the bad turnover in the first place or simply failing to rejoin the play, or the back checking forward who wasn't anywhere near the open man.

Just because a guy was caught swimming doesn't mean he's the main problem in a play.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by Igottago

You only bench Gio if you want to turn the locker room into a complete disaster. Benching your captain and well liked leader is a horrible idea. No better way to destroy whatever good feelings remain in the locker room.

Gio's game needs to pick up but you don't embarrass your captain like that. Right or wrong, Gio is the face of the franchise now. He'll get traded before he ever gets benched.

[PeteMoss]

Originally Posted by saillias

Haven't seen this, I had turned the game off by that point. Wow.

Brodie trying to be Ovechkin and failing miserably. Gio's patented falling and flailing around on the ice. Colborne chasing down Galchenyuk about a year after he gets the puck off the stick. Derp, derp and derp.

The guy who gave the puck away (Brodie I believe) is to blame. Pretty hard to defend anyone when you're standing still against against players skating forward (this is basically exactly what happened to Duncan Keith when Gaudreau walked around him).

[codynw]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

Benching Giordano after he just signed a huge extension would be way worse than benching Lanny in his final season, when he wasn't even a full time captain.

[Itse]

Originally Posted by Igottago

You only bench Gio if you want to turn the locker room into a complete disaster. Benching your captain and well liked leader is a horrible idea. No better way to destroy whatever good feelings remain in the locker room.

Gio's game needs to pick up but you don't embarrass your captain like that. Right or wrong, Gio is the face of the franchise now. He'll get traded before he ever gets benched.

I've never liked this logic.
1. The benching is not the embarrassement. Benching is about performance. If a player feel the benching is embarrassing, the he should be embarrassed about the way he has played before that, not about the benching.

2. I don't think you should treat the captain special. On the contrary, you should hold him to higher standards than anyone. He should show exemplary discipline on the ice and humility towards his own shortcomings. If he's benched, he should show by example that it's not an embarrassment. Benchings should be a normal part of the game, a tool in the coaches box, an opportunity for the player to step back and evaluate the problems in his game.

3. If our team motto stands for anything, it should IMO mean that even the captain has to earn his icetime.

[Mister Yamoto]

What really makes this sting is that last year wasn't even his contract year. It should have been this season.

Treliving didn't do himself any favours when he announced that a Giordano extension is the #1 priority of the summer.

What sort of $$ would Gio be in line for now?

[irrevocable]

Yep.. it looks bad right now. I'm not giving up on Gio, it'd be foolish (imo) to do that right now.

Good lord though, wtf?

[saillias]

Originally Posted by PeteMoss

The guy who gave the puck away (Brodie I believe) is to blame. Pretty hard to defend anyone when you're standing still against against players skating forward (this is basically exactly what happened to Duncan Keith when Gaudreau walked around him).

Absolutely, I don't disagree. I still reserve the right to mock him for getting schooled by who, Desharnais, Weise or Galchenyuk? C'mon.

[Poe969]

I guess you can just word it differently. Try to talk to him and say that you think he should "recover from his nagging injury" for a few games. He just doesn't look at 100% and I don't care if he's the captain, the owner or the easter bunny, he's not helping the team playing at the level he's playing at now.

[Jaydee]

"Always earned never given"

Doesn't seem to me like he's earned any ice time this season

[Badgers Nose]

Originally Posted by Jaydee

"Always earned never given"

Doesn't seem to me like he's earned any ice time this season

Wait, you would rank Gio 7th on the current roster?

That's nuts. He is struggling but is easily top four on this team. Benching him makes the team worse. The only message it would is that Hartley is dumb. He isn't.

[CroFlames]

Gio is making some good plays throughout games. Flashes, if you will, of last year's Gio.

The problem is that he's playing huge stretches of this unknown Gio where he seems to be reading plays slow, or outright wrongly. Carrying pucks when he should be passing and vice-versa. Simply not the on-ice spark he provided so many times last year through his brilliant play.

Concerning, but not panicking. He will turn it around - it's just a question of when. IMO it should have happened no later than 30 days into the season.