Not all players should be judged by the same expectations.
Staal plays a role where he gets mostly terrible zone starts, and is tasked with making sure goals don't go in the Rangers net. He rarely gets many offensive chances. If all you are going to do is judge whether he had more good offensive plays than bad defensive plays, he is going to have very few good games because his role on the team doesn't really allow instances like that to happen very often. Its the same exact thing with Girardi. That type of thinking gives an advantage in evaluation to players like Yandle and Boyle who rarely are asked to play in their own zone.
If the team allows no even strength goals, and very few good chances, I find it hard to say Staal didn't play well. He got beat one time I believe when he was rounded by a Lightning player who got off a good chance, Girardi also got beat once with Stamkos taking the puck away from him near our net after Girardi had taken it from Stamkos. You can't expect an 100% success rate though in the NHL. If you are going to watch that game and say Staal played poorly, you are working a preconceived narrative that won't let you judge his play fairly.
