I'll never argue that Holden is a better one-on-one defenseman than Zadorov, but Holden seems to thrive in a system better than Zadorov ever has. (And as an aside, I think Z's recent poor play made me forget about his great single-target shutdown ability.) I have to disagree with letting him loose in the D zone because that directly led to a goal against in game 1 of the Dallas series. Z goes for the hit, loses his man, and then the puck is in the back of the net; this isn't an uncommon occurrence, but it is keyed in on more during the playoffs.
This discussion has evolved into a discussion about Zadorov and Nick Holden, and I'm not particularly enthusiastic about either player, so I'm going to bow out after this reply. I do appreciate the candid discussion, though, despite our differences in opinion.
Fair enough, I enjoyed the discussion, but we're definitely off-topic.
Let's get back ON topic...Joe Sakic's done a great job thus far as GM, but it's clear in this series that he has a bit of work to do yet.