GDT: 10/6/17 - 7:30PM EDT - Florida vs Tampa Bay

[These Are The Days]

Why is everybody complaining? Can't have too many good defenders. Girardi is a proven vet who had one poor season because of health issues. If he's healthy then why wouldn't you give him every chance to succeed? If he plays poorly, he'll get demoted or even scratched in a hurry. They'll evaluate the team after every game or even period. No reason to be upset.

It's not the poor season due to injury that concerns me. It's the fact that he could have the night of his life tonight and it still may not be enough to assure us victory. But when he's in over his head? Forget about it. I don't buy for a second that putting him on the top pairing isn't doing that.

 

[Hinterland]

It's not the poor season due to injury that concerns me. It's the fact that he could have the night of his life tonight and it still may not be enough to assure us victory. But when he's in over his head? Forget about it. I don't buy for a second that putting him on the top pairing isn't doing that.

What are you talking about?

 

[Steazy Doo]

Let's at least see how it works before we sharpen the the pitchforks.

May just be a placeholder for Dotchin disciplinary reasons anyway. Dotchin has been practicing with Hedman all week

 

[The Macho King]

Why is everybody complaining? Can't have too many good defenders. Girardi is a proven vet who had one poor season because of health issues. If he's healthy then why wouldn't you give him every chance to succeed? If he plays poorly, he'll get demoted or even scratched in a hurry. They'll evaluate the team after every game or even period. No reason to be upset.

Don't see how this is relevant to a discussion on Girardi, but okay.

And he's had way more than one poor season. He's always been mediocre. He's a dinosaur - a Dman built for a league that no longer exists.

 

[HoseEmDown]

Team is better off without Dotchin on the ice, we won't be on the penalty kill as often now.

 

[TheDaysOf 04]

 

[These Are The Days]

Let's at least see how it works before we sharpen the the pitchforks.

Would you have trusted Garrison on the top pairing?

Let's at least see how it works before we sharpen the the pitchforks.

May just be a placeholder for Dotchin disciplinary reasons anyway. Dotchin has been practicing with Hedman all week

I hope this to be true because there isn't a single one of us who would have trusted the likes of Coburn or Garrison at the top. Girardi is no different. I simply tolerate Dotchin because he gets the job done and it's allowed Stralman to be used elsewhere in the lineup. My support of him will last only as long as his effectiveness because the only other person I truly trust at the top is Stralman.

 

[The Macho King]

Team is better off without Dotchin on the ice, we won't be on the penalty kill as often now.

15 minors in 35 games is... I mean, it's not bad, but at the same time I don't know how many of those were matching (I'm sure quite a few of them were matching roughing minors and whatnot).

So let's call it 12 minors as an estimation? That's one penalty every 3 games. Not good, but not awful either.

 

[Brie]

I guess this could make sense:

 

[Hinterland]

Don't see how this is relevant to a discussion on Girardi, but okay.

And he's had way more than one poor season. He's always been mediocre. He's a dinosaur - a Dman built for a league that no longer exists.

I disagree. He's been a top pairing guy for years and he's done it on a successful team. Rangers fans always adored the guy until he had health issues. Then all of a sudden he was the overpaid guy who was bad for years and the guy to blame for everything that went wrong. From a neutral standpoint that's just nonsense. I think Vigneault would have liked to give Girardi some time off and attempted to so several times but just couldn't because his back end was pretty bad already and his only option was an even worse one (Clendening). So Girardi ended up staying on the top pair game after game and the fans started to hate him even more.

If he's healthy now, which I'm not sure he is, then I'm not worried. And like I wrote earlier...even if he struggles, him starting on the top pairing isn't the big deal. He'd get demoted or even scratched in no time. Start complaining in november or december but not before the puck even dropped for the 1st time. Makes a lot of sense to at least try a guy on the top pairing who did exactly that for years...

 

[The Macho King]

I disagree. He's been a top pairing guy for years and he's done it on a successful team. Rangers fans always adored the guy until he had health issues. Then all of a sudden he was the overpaid guy who was bad for years and the guy to blame for everything that went wrong. From a neutral standpoint that's just nonsense. I think Vigneault would have liked to give Girardi some time off and attempted to so several times but just couldn't because his back end was pretty bad already and his only option was an even worse one (Clendening). So Girardi ended up staying on the top pair game after game and the fans started to hate him even more.

If he's healthy now, which I'm not sure he is, then I'm not worried. And like I wrote earlier...even if he struggles, him starting on the top pairing isn't the big deal. He'd get demoted or even scratched in no time. Start complaining in november or december but not before the puck even dropped for the 1st time. Makes a lot of sense to at least try a guy on the top pairing who did exactly that for years...

Being played on the top pairing =/= top pairing guy. HTH.

And the bolded is a flat out lie.

 

[HoseEmDown]

15 minors in 35 games is... I mean, it's not bad, but at the same time I don't know how many of those were matching (I'm sure quite a few of them were matching roughing minors and whatnot).

So let's call it 12 minors as an estimation? That's one penalty every 3 games. Not good, but not awful either.

Well Sustr had 19 minors in 80 games, so 1 roughly every 4 games. While Girardi had 8 in 63 games, roughly 1 every 8 games. Dotchin had the worst minors to games played ratio of any player we had last year.

 

[Steazy Doo]

Would you have trusted Garrison on the top pairing?


I hope this to be true because there isn't a single one of us who would have trusted the likes of Coburn or Garrison at the top. Girardi is no different. I simply tolerate Dotchin because he gets the job done and it's allowed Stralman to be used elsewhere in the lineup. My support of him will last only as long as his effectiveness because the only other person I truly trust at the top is Stralman.

Who cares about Garrison?

Point is, with Dotchin being blacklisted, you have three choices to play on a pairing with Hedman. That would be Sustr, Koekkoek, and Girardi. It's basically a coin-flip between Sustr and Girardi, since Koekkoek is a lefty, and Girardi had a good preseason from what I've read, so why not give it a try?

I take it you'd rather see Stralman with Hedman, leaving Sergachev with Girardi or Coburn? Good plan

 

[The Macho King]

Well Sustr had 19 minors in 80 games, so 1 roughly every 4 games. While Girardi had 8 in 63 games, roughly 1 every 8 games. Dotchin had the worst minors to games played ratio of any player we had last year.

...

Okay? I'm not disagreeing with the discipline issue. That's something that needs to get better. Doesn't mean he's not 80 times better than those f***ing pylons though.

 

[Leonardo87]

Feels like a Rangers GDT.

 

[HoseEmDown]

...

Okay? I'm not disagreeing with the discipline issue. That's something that needs to get better. Doesn't mean he's not 80 times better than those ****ing pylons though.

If they were pylons you'd think they'd have more penalties, like tripping or hooking when they get beat but they don't. So maybe Dotchin is the pylon?

 

[The Gongshow]

BEAUTIFUL GDT as per usual, thanks to 04!

We are FINALLY back to Tampa hockey. Lets start the season off right! Super excited for tonight

 

[The Gongshow]

MRW Tampa hockey is back

 

[AlphaCatalyst]

GO Must Win Game

Also Great GDT as always Do04. You outdo yourself every year.

 

[These Are The Days]

I guess this could make sense:

I could only wish

 

[Kristia]

Great job on the GDT days! Go Bolts!!!

 

[TeslaCoilFan]

A terrific GDT!!

Let's go !!

 

[More 2004]

Our top pairing:

Hedman -

 

[LordZapp]

carrying that around will make him much stronger lol

Our top pairing:

Hedman -

 

[HoseEmDown]

Serious question, anybody thinking of watching the national team game vs Panama instead? I'm gonna try to watch both but that's a huge game for us while we have 81 more of these. Wanted to go to the game but tickets were insane for it.