Polak recent games have been far better then any games Zeitsev has played this year.
The hate Polak takes is simply wrong.
Zietsev has been a mess all year and look at how Gardiner played away from him and the same goes for Morgan. He is simply put not near smart enough to play against good player game in and game out. He is a bottom pair D man.
Polak is a bottom pair D man who has his struggles with fast teams but follows proper rotations and makes better reads consistently. Dermott looks like he will get more minutes in the playoffs then both of them.
Zaitsev was actually playing very well before this flu thing hit and Gardiner has played better with Zaitsev than without. Whats even more bizarre is the fact Hainsey has been the dman struggling while people have been slagging Zaitsev (who was pretty brutal in Nov-Dec and wasnt amazing when he first came back off the injury). Zaitsev has also been faltering on the PK a bit after an amazing start but his 5v5 has been pretty steller latley.
I wasnt sure why he was taking so much heat as I couldnt see what many were talking about so I decided to look into the stats. In the 8 games before Zaitsev went down, he and Gardiner were easily the best pairing and led the d in possession over that time at around 56%. What may have burned Zaitsev a bit during this time is his crazy low PDO below .950 and a couple of high visible mistakes that fed the narrative. He did lead all dmen in SCF % at almost 59%. The worst dmen in terms of possession during this time were Hainsey at just below 50% and Polak under 47.
In the four games since, Gardiner 5v5 possession has dipped to 48% (including the laugher against the Canadians) while Hainsey has been bottoming out at 43%!. Carrick and Dermott have really been lights out at around 60% and Polak has looked amazing at an unusual 49% but that might be because he is actually playing with a guy that can carry him. Speaking of carrying a guy, Rielly has been doing his best but Hainsey having to play even tougher minutes than before is going to wear him out.
Im looking forward to Zaitsev coming back as he and Gards were just finding their groove and not having him in the lineup puts a ton of pressure on Gards (who has to eat more minutes than he should and is less effective) Hainsey (whose drop in play was already getting worrysome) and Rielly as he has to carry Hainsey on the top pair. Zaitsev(when playing well) adds a nice layer of depth to the top four and if it wasnt for Carrick and Dermott solidifying themselves as an amazing bottom 6 pair for the playoffs in my eyes, the pain would be more apparent.