Defence

[garret9]

I guess I will disagree with a majority but then again I am used to minority dissent.

I find it unusual so much offence comes from our defence. It drives me crazy that somehow Byfuglien's offensive game is more important than that of our 3-4 liners. I prefer stay at home defencemen that punish forwards for playing a finesse game. We don't have those players on this club other than maybe Bogo. I also believe it's the same problem the Oilers have faced over the last 2-3 years.

Based on my VERY AMATEUR experiences as a 3-4th line player, I always found it straining to back check. It took away from my physical play and the forecheck. I couldn't hit as often or nearly as hard to punish defencemen. It's for this reason I worry. I think it will be tough for our forwards to keep that intensity for an entire game if they are always worried about their defensive responsibilities. I don't feel it's their primary job. We need scoring and consistency. I prefer to let defencemen concentrate on defence.

I simply don't believe this is a good way to construct a hockey team (especially as we are rebuilding).

Most of us don't think you're wrong in essence. Many of us say our D-corpse is missing a quality defensive defenseman (see list I made above).
The problem of your comments are the punishing bit matters a lot less than are they effective and some of your assumptions of some of our D are wrong (also commented in one paragraph which ones those are).

Trouba IMO is 3-4 years away from top 4 and he's probably the only D prospect who has a solid chance of being that guy. So, many of us are hoping for a 2013 UFA signing to replace Hainsey when he's off the books. To me being physical is nice and a plus, but what's far more important is actually working. There are physical guys who will never be effective, physical guys who are effective, and non-physical guys who are effective, which sometimes is missed. Then for 2013-14 we can have:
Enstrom-Byfuglien
XX-Bogosian
Stuart-Postma
Redmond
The two first pairings can take all the tough matchups so Stuart can kick the **** out of 3rd and 4th liners and no-longer-rookie-Postma's offensive skills become more effective while his defensive liabilities become severly minimized. This core could actually win a cup and would be very solid.

 

[truck]

Me too. I wanted Kulda on our roster last year. I think we need a guy like him twice as bad as last year now for basically all the reasons you mentioned.

I miss Kulda too.

 

[Huffer]

Looking at what's available for UFA defensemen this year is pretty disappointing. Hainsey is the 4th highest paid soon to be UFA (ouch).

Of the list, some fits that I see are Scuderi and Smid, and I don't think either will be available. The rest of the list wasn't too appealing.

 

[truck]

Looking at what's available for UFA defensemen this year is pretty disappointing. Hainsey is the 4th highest paid soon to be UFA (ouch).

Of the list, some fits that I see are Scuderi and Smid, and I don't think either will be available. The rest of the list wasn't too appealing.

It won't matter when the Jets trade Thorburn for PK Subban.

The Jets are set.

 

[allan5oh]

This is the danger of calling D-men "offensive" "defensive" or "shut down". I don't think anyone can argue Enstrom is better defensively than Stuart. Better positioning, better reads, better takeaways (by a mile). The only thing he lacks is a bit of strength, but he more than makes up for it with IQ.

So we have "offensive" Enstrom who is actually better at defense then "defensive" Stuart.

 

[garret9]

This is the danger of calling D-men "offensive" "defensive" or "shut down". I don't think anyone can argue Enstrom is better defensively than Stuart. Better positioning, better reads, better takeaways (by a mile). The only thing he lacks is a bit of strength, but he more than makes up for it with IQ.

So we have "offensive" Enstrom who is actually better at defense then "defensive" Stuart.

ding ding ding we have a winner

 

[Huffer]

It won't matter when the Jets trade Thorburn for PK Subban.

The Jets are set.

For sure. When that day comes, we will be all set.

 

[garret9]

Looking at what's available for UFA defensemen this year is pretty disappointing. Hainsey is the 4th highest paid soon to be UFA (ouch).

Of the list, some fits that I see are Scuderi and Smid, and I don't think either will be available. The rest of the list wasn't too appealing.

There are some available that we could look for:
http://www.capgeek.com/ufa-finder/?position_id=D&stats_type=ICE_TIME

Realistically all we need is slight upgrade on Hainsey...

 

[Jet]

Jim Vandermeer on waivers as per Bob McKenzie on Twitter. Could he help? Is he better than Stuart?

 

[garret9]

Jim Vandermeer on waivers as per Bob McKenzie on Twitter. Could he help? Is he better than Stuart?

2009 he was playing tough minutes and did well in PHX when Stuart was struggling in BOS
2010 he played equally semi-sheltered mins as Stuart in EDM and did bit better than Stu
2011 he played super sheltered mins in SJ (more so than Stuart) and had some difficulties...

If he can regain 2010 (or even better 2010 form) he'd be upgrade on Stu but downgrade on Hainsey, but he could be worse than an offensiveless Postma at 2011 form...

 

[Guerzy]

I've always been a bit of a Vandermeer fan. We had our opportunity to invite him to camp or what not and didn't, Vancouver did, so will we have interest now? Not sure. I think we could certainly use a big, rough and tumble guy like that *if* he could provide us with steady minutes.

I doubt we do anything, at least not for a few games. We'll see what we've got here, then if we're really stumbling, perhaps Chevy makes a move to address things.

 

[Huffer]

There are some available that we could look for:
http://www.capgeek.com/ufa-finder/?position_id=D&stats_type=ICE_TIME

Realistically all we need is slight upgrade on Hainsey...

Isn't that lost showing guys that are NOT UFA at the end of this year?

This is the list of UFA defensemen at the end of the year is it not?

http://www.capgeek.com/free-agents/?year_id=2013&team_id=-1&position_id=D&fa_type_id=2

 

[Sweech]

This is the danger of calling D-men "offensive" "defensive" or "shut down". I don't think anyone can argue Enstrom is better defensively than Stuart. Better positioning, better reads, better takeaways (by a mile). The only thing he lacks is a bit of strength, but he more than makes up for it with IQ.

So we have "offensive" Enstrom who is actually better at defense then "defensive" Stuart.

Exactly this.

I guess "two-way" is more the proper moniker for Enstrom, but it just shows the uselessness in such titles.

 

[garret9]

Isn't that lost showing guys that are NOT UFA at the end of this year?

This is the list of UFA defensemen at the end of the year is it not?

http://www.capgeek.com/free-agents/?year_id=2013&team_id=-1&position_id=D&fa_type_id=2

**** you're right

 

[cocorico]

Would have been nice to pull out the victory, but an important point on the road against a premier team-- Thanks to our Defense!!!

One goal by a 4th line forward and we still took the Bruins to a shootout.
- Postma assisted on the lone goal in his 11 min on ice
- Hainsey played over 25 minutes (2 SOG)
- Stuart played almost 20 minutes (even strength and short handed only) with 2 SOG, 3 Hits and 3 Blocked Shots.
- Engstrom and Buyfuglien (3 blocked shots) played 30 minutes (-1)

Sure would be nice to score some goals......