Player Discussion Dan Girardi Part VII

[Mac n Gs]

Girardi was really bad numbers wise..he just wasn't glaringly bad outside of 2 or 3 plays....its just that Staal was so abhorrent...and Holden couldn't prop I'm up the way McD can that you all forget.

Staal couldn't skate or pass in the Ottawa series. I still see flashbacks to him turning his back at the point and yielding that breakway with him just trailing 40 feet behind the play.

 

[haohmaru]

Just bad/non decision making with the puck for Staal. How many times did he have the puck and do nothing with it and just put it, and himself, against the wall? Painful.

 

[mrhockey193195]

Not sure what the numbers looked like, but I thought Girardi made some good plays in the offensive zone (good pinches, one timed the puck a ton and got it on net), and made some key blocks. He may have still been bad getting the puck out of the zone, but at least there were some positives along with that. Staal...not so much.

 

[NYRFAN218]

Not sure what the numbers looked like, but I thought Girardi made some good plays in the offensive zone (good pinches, one timed the puck a ton and got it on net), and made some key blocks. He may have still been bad getting the puck out of the zone, but at least there were some positives along with that. Staal...not so much.

He's always been a great pincher. That's actually one of the strongest parts of his games. I can probably count on one hand the amount of times where i said "wow that was a dumb pinch by Girardi."

I still buy him out before Staal simply because as long as AV is here I don't trust him enough to not play Girardi on pair 1 and it's pretty clear going forward Staal is our 3rd best LD so you could at least shelter him.

I do wonder though if the plan winds up being that they bite the bullet and buy out Staal and look to trade Girardi after his NMC becomes a limited NTC. His value is probably up a bit after his mini renaissance and they could sweeten the deal to a team to take the contract or at least most of it. Only 3 years left on the deal so it's not like he's signed until eternity. There's just no scenario here where they buy out both.