Giroux tha Damaja
Registered User
I just wanted to make an observation about Matt Carle. As fans started to sour on him a little bit I tended to stay pretty high on Carle and remained tolerant of his weaknesses. I think that he brought more to the ice offensively than his 35 points/year show and his defense, while not fantastic, was underrated while he was here (particularly for a guy without great physical gifts). Early on this season there is some compelling evidence for the argument in Matt Carle's defense.
He left the Flyers with the second best offense in the league. Right now the Flyers are the 27th offense in the league. Granted JVR and Jagr left, but neither one of them were exactly lighting it up for much of last season.
He went to Tampa, who had the 20th ranked offense in the league last year and are now in first by almost a goal and a half a game. Sami Salo was also added and the Salo-Hedman pairing has good #'s, but if you watch the Carle-Brouwer pairing, they've been really effective and a big part of the turn around.
At 5.5 million for six years I still don't blame Holmgren for letting him walk, but I think the way things are going here and in Tampa do a lot to reinforce the argument I have been advancing for a long time that Matt Carle is a better even strength player than he gets credit for.
He left the Flyers with the second best offense in the league. Right now the Flyers are the 27th offense in the league. Granted JVR and Jagr left, but neither one of them were exactly lighting it up for much of last season.
He went to Tampa, who had the 20th ranked offense in the league last year and are now in first by almost a goal and a half a game. Sami Salo was also added and the Salo-Hedman pairing has good #'s, but if you watch the Carle-Brouwer pairing, they've been really effective and a big part of the turn around.
At 5.5 million for six years I still don't blame Holmgren for letting him walk, but I think the way things are going here and in Tampa do a lot to reinforce the argument I have been advancing for a long time that Matt Carle is a better even strength player than he gets credit for.