Juxtaposer
Outro: Divina Comedia
There’s a world of difference between Haley and Karlsson. Yeah, Haley wasn’t great and we would always be better without him. He was a defensive liability and given DeBoer’s love of fourth line defensive faceoffs against opponents’ star forwards, it was a problem. 4th lines are important. Remember Vancouver in 2011, when Scott Nichol, Ben Eager, and whoever else (Jed Ortmeyer?) were all on the ice for like literally 40 seconds in game 2 (I think) and let in three goals against in those literal 40 seconds of ice time they had?
But at the same time, 4th liners have less ice time and typically play against opponents’ fourth liners (DeBoer’s favorite 4th line vs McDavid matchup notwithstanding). Karlsson is a different story. I’m completely fine with him playing on the fourth line. But the problem is that any time a player gets hurt or benched (Labanc, Boedker, etc. if the game is close in the third), Karlsson sees wildly increased minutes. Karlsson torpedoes the possession ability of whatever line he’s on in the top-9. So yeah, Karlsson is a bigger issue than Haley ever was. At least Haley was never played outside his reasonable capabilities.
I liked Hayes but only because his name was ‘Eriah’ and that’s awesome.
But at the same time, 4th liners have less ice time and typically play against opponents’ fourth liners (DeBoer’s favorite 4th line vs McDavid matchup notwithstanding). Karlsson is a different story. I’m completely fine with him playing on the fourth line. But the problem is that any time a player gets hurt or benched (Labanc, Boedker, etc. if the game is close in the third), Karlsson sees wildly increased minutes. Karlsson torpedoes the possession ability of whatever line he’s on in the top-9. So yeah, Karlsson is a bigger issue than Haley ever was. At least Haley was never played outside his reasonable capabilities.
I liked Hayes...
I liked Hayes but only because his name was ‘Eriah’ and that’s awesome.