I think a big disconnect in your posts about DD and Gionta is assessing players individually instead of looking at the the big picture, ie the team and the league.
The entire Western Conference has ONE player who is 5'9" or shorter out of 322 players. 1/322. Less than one-third of one percent of the Western Con players are that friggin tiny.
Meanwhile the Habs have FIVE such players. That's 22% of our roster. And most of our top-six forwards. This is a physical limitation that impacts what our squad can and cannot do on the ice.
Maybe the skill level of our midgets is good. But other teams don't want them, that's the message. No other team has built such a small roster. So any arguments about a small player's skill making up for his size to the degree that size does not matter, arguments to that effect are not endorsed by the rest of professional hockey.
If some of us here want Gio gone next year it is not because we want a crap big guy. No one is suggesting that would be a good idea. And arguing that we should keep Gio because he's "better" than out worst big guy (Bourque) is similarly flawed reasoning.
Of course if Gio skates through Chara's legs and scores the Game 7 GWG in May I'll admit that the smurf strategy is genius and I was wrong.
