Players who don't get enough criticism for their poor defensive plays?

[Plural]

Yeah. I'd say that Matthews is clearly quite good for his age and handles his secondary match up role decently, but he's not the defensive phenom that Barkov is. It seems that he has every intention of becoming that though, which bodes well. When it comes to young players, give me the one who is hell-bent on improving.

Oh hells yeah. I'm absolutely not questioning his will and capabilities of becoming a great two-way center. Like I said earlier, it probably is just a matter of semantics. I'd be surprised if Matthews does not develop in to one of the defining two-way centers (and at the same time one of the premier goal-scorers in the league) through his era. I just don't think he's the kind of player I'd call "special" in defensive abilities. Not yet. I reserve those superlatives to guys like Barkov.

 

[RickP]

My knock on Subban is not his giveaways. It's his god awful reads defensively.. His best defensive asset is laying on people.

Also forgot he hits people from time to time

Do you have any specific examples of his "god awful reads defensively"?

 

[Butch 19]

Lol Karlsson is better than everyone but Doughty on your Kings defensively. If anything he's criminally underrated defensively.

Lol Karlsson is better than everyone but Doughty on your Kings defensively. If anything he's criminally underrated defensively.

LOL indeed.

Do you know how many highlight clips that EK is in for getting beat by forwards from 30 other teams?? It's.... a lot!

​

 

[CristianoRonaldo]

Subban

Yeah, Jordan Subban is not that good defensively.

 

[CantLoseWithMatthews]

Oh hells yeah. I'm absolutely not questioning his will and capabilities of becoming a great two-way center. Like I said earlier, it probably is just a matter of semantics. I'd be surprised if Matthews does not develop in to one of the defining two-way centers (and at the same time one of the premier goal-scorers in the league) through his era. I just don't think he's the kind of player I'd call "special" in defensive abilities. Not yet. I reserve those superlatives to guys like Barkov.

I think earlier in the year Matthews was worthy of being called a special defensive player, especially for his age. He was great in corners, hustled very hard on the back-check, excelled in defensive faceoffs, and had a great stick all over the ice. he just lost a lot of that later in the year though unfortunately. His timing looked off and he made a lot of uncharacteristic lax efforts and questionable turnovers. Hopefully he can bounce back

 

[Plural]

I think earlier in the year Matthews was worthy of being called a special defensive player, especially for his age. He was great in corners, hustled very hard on the back-check, excelled in defensive faceoffs, and had a great stick all over the ice. he just lost a lot of that later in the year though unfortunately. His timing looked off and he made a lot of uncharacteristic lax efforts and questionable turnovers. Hopefully he can bounce back

I'm guessing it's more about fatigue than it is about ability. One thing that can't be stressed enough is the physical demand these young kids go through when they enter a high end role in their late teens or early twenties. They are going against fully developed best of the best, every game is demanding. It's not reasonable to assume that these kids stay up to par. It's kind of f***ing exciting that they still do what they do at such young age.

 

[Rhaegar Targaryen]

An interesting thing happened with Marner in the second half of this season. He got put on our match up line, and started to live up to his pre-draft hype as a two-way player.

I would agree with you on Marner before that. It actually ties very well in with what I said earlier, that expectation shapes impression. Marner/Nylander is a very good example of that. Both of them have been rather equal defensively in my opinion so far in their careers, and the stats seem to support that albeit with an edge in favor of Nylander. However, Marner was drafted as a two-way player while Nylander was more of a project defensively, and that has colored perception so much. The same play that gets glossed over with Marner becomes problem areas for Nylander.

That’s an interesting fact.

Last year, Mike Hoffman on Ottawa got put in a shutdown role and did it very well. It was a little surprising to see, so I can get behind a player rising up to a new role.

As I said, the effort was always there, IMO, for Marner. He wasn’t lazy, just seemed lost. I’ll have to keep an eye out next season for that.

 

[Fire Benning]

Bo Horvat was touted as a strong two-way center and he some still attach that to him but his defensive play in the NHL has been ghastly so far, he's gotten overused on the PK despite being not very good on it.

 

[Fire Benning]

Subban is nowhere close to being poor defensively.

One of the best defensemen in the league at defending the blue line.

 

[JungleBeat]

On top of that he gets ripped by all sens fans. He was fine before they started using him incorrectly with the sens terrible coach.

Disagree. Half of Senators fans believe his a solid above average 3/4. When you’re as bad as Ceci defensively and a black hole offensively you’re not good.

 

[Iapyi]

E Karlsson is one of the worst defensive players who has ever played the game.

As much as Ovechkin gets knocked for poor defense he should really be criticized for it even more, yes he is that bad defensively. Hard to have much respect for guys like him who put their team in so many poor situations just because the don't have the work ethic to match their natural skill.

 

[liljegren beast]

Danault and Nylander.

Danault just seems to always leave guys open in his own zone, and Nylander has seeming 0 will to block shots and win board puck battles.

 

[sabremike]

E Karlsson is one of the worst defensive players who has ever played the game.

As much as Ovechkin gets knocked for poor defense he should really be criticized for it even more, yes he is that bad defensively. Hard to have much respect for guys like him who put their team in so many poor situations just because the don't have the work ethic to match their natural skill.

Even Skip Bayless just said that was a ridiculous hot take.

 

[Iapyi]

Even Skip Bayless just said that was a ridiculous hot take.

While I appreciate this Skip guy paying such close attention to my words of wisdom I don't know who he is though I an inkling he's some media lemming. In any event I'm quite certain my hockey acumen is much stronger then his and I don't care what he thinks. But thanks for letting me know.