its really shocking how much better our defence has been without schultz gifting the other team *at least* one goal every single freaking game... even i, likely the biggest critic of schultz on these boards, was surprised how much better we looked as soon as he was gone
if we actually had a healthy defence, with klefbom and davidson, we'd look even better.... schultz was a boat-anchor for the entire freaking team... simply ridiculous, almost to level of being unbelievable, how much schultz hurt his team game in and game out
Yup. I usually hate the term "addition by subtraction", but in this case, it seems to be appropriate.
Who cares? Schultz is still what he's always been. A good skating, decent passing, poor decision making Dman who is allergic to hard work and physical play. Him fitting into a 3rd pairing role on a playoff team doesn't change that, there are plenty of garbage D who play bottom pair on playoff teams because of the salary cap and fit in fine because they have top pairings eating up almost half the game vs top competition for them.
Yeah, but he was brought in to be Neidermeyer-type Norris-trophy-potential dman. At least that was the hype coming in. Just goes to show - don't believe the hype. I think management and Schultz both fell for it, with management trying to build the d around him and Schultz thinking he could get by on skill alone. His hot start in the AHL and NHL probably was the worst thing for his development.
Seems to be doing just fine playing 15 minutes a night on a bottom pairing like he should be in pittsburgh. +5 in 9 games, hasn't been a minus player in any of those games.
I read through the trade thread on their board and opinions seem to be mixed. I haven't watched any of their games though.
The thing is, he came in as a UFA, which over-prices his services. The expectations for him were a lot more than a bottom pairing player and he knew that. If for some reason his skills weren't up to where they were expected, you would hope to see him trying to make up for it everywhere else in his game. Instead, it seemed like he was biding his time waiting to be traded, hence why the fans were booing him. How often do we see a specific player get singled out like that? There have been lots of **** players on this team over the years, but I don't recall the fans singling out a player like that since Poti.