I don't think he's playing worse than Sustr. I still think he's our second best D-man, although Dotchin is playing surprisingy well. I also haven't reached the point where I feel he's not worth his cap hit. But what is very evident is that he's either not as quick as he used to be, or the East is a lot faster than it used to be. Probably a combination of the two. Speed is becoming a real issue for our defense. That's not a problem that's going to just go away.
Interestingly, as counter-intuitive as it sounds, none of our D look terrible when we push the pace. They can all react fast, and move the puck quickly, but when we get hemmed into our own zone, or even just sit back against aggressive forechecking our D just get eaten alive by speed. I mean, it's to the point now where, when we try to regroup, forecheckers are almost able to get to Stralman (to say nothing of the others) before he can even get out from behind the net. He skates well enough that he can usually avoid a total disaster, but it's getting a lot dicier than it used to be. I don't like that, is all I'm saying.
