do0glas
Registered User
- Jan 26, 2012
- 13,271
- 683
I'm comparing a winger to another winger who has been playing center for a little bit this year...not an actual center. You've yet to show that Havlat is worse as a choice than McCarthy. Your fore-check argument is weak because he doesn't do that very often and he certainly doesn't do it very well. His skating effectiveness is not better than Havlat even this year when Havlat is recovering from a major surgery. I don't care if McCarthy can stay on his skates better. He doesn't utilize his skating ability to be a more effective player on either end of the ice than Havlat.
It doesn't take very long to figure out why Havlat is more effective than McCarthy. Production on one side and what they give up on the other end is really all you need to know. McCarthy does next to nothing on the offensive end, and yes even in his 4th line role he is expected to do more than one assist, and doesn't defend the other side very well either.
I'm sorry but McCarthy is a much better skater than havlat right now. Havlats surgery is obvious out there. He's struggling to keep up and his Corsi numbers show that as well.
Havlat has 4 more points than brown in the same amount of time. A decent amount of that with our top line. Weak argument.
Havlat vs McCarthy as a forecheck is obvious because even of havlat decides to skate that far he is doing nothing at that point. McCarthy doesn't do it as much as his wingers but he does do it and generally separates his guy from the puck in the process.
The fact that there is even a debate between havlat vs. McCarthy/brown tells me quite a bit about how much Marty is actually doing on the ice.
I wish we had a havlat that was 100%. But we don't and I doubt ever will. I'll definitely give him a chance though if he does see the ice again.