gorangers0525
Registered User
- Dec 15, 2014
- 2,751
- 687
Your opinion is fine if you think he's no longer the player he was. The problem I had with that post you had was that he's lazy because he blocks shots. Girardi's hardly the only d-man in the league who blocks a lot of shots and a lot of those other D I'm sure you'd recognize as good players even if you don't think Girardi is anymore. I don't see Girardi as lazy at all. Like pretty much every one of his teammates--(some of whom I don't care a lot for by the way) he's had to work incredibly hard to get to where he has. The rewards for that can be astronomical--so there's no reason to feel sorry for any of them when they're time is up or they can no longer cut it. Even so playing D in the NHL the way he has over the years is a hard way to make a living--and running up blocked shots stats is a fairly unappreciated way to get welts, bruises and the odd broken bone. Sometimes it can mean the difference though between winning and losing.
He is not lazy because he simply blocks shots. If necessary I would expect any defenseman to block the shot. He's lazy because it's his primary form of defense and usually a result of bad positioning or poor skating. Good defenseman are agressive enough to prevent the shot, gain posession, and then maintain posession going the other way. Getting a piece of a shot doesn't even guarantee the puck won't go in the net. Furthermore, when he does get the puck he usually throws it up the boards which is also lazy and ineffective. He hasn't always been this way, but this is his current state. Yea, it takes guts to block a shot, it also takes guts to purposefully nail your hand to a 2x4. Doesn't mean it's always the best, or most effective, decision.