I'm having trouble understanding this. In the 2nd paragraph it seems your saying Braun is the bigger reason for the pair struggling. In the 3rd paragraph it seems your saying Vlasic's alleged decline is more at fault...
Imo Vlasic's so called decline is overblown. For me he is still absolutely elite defensively. I really think putting him with a partner that can make outlet passes under pressure and help skate the puck out of their zone would show he is still an elite defenseman.
The combination of the two declines tanked the pairings as a whole. But the Vlasic and McDonagh decline probably had a bigger effect.
Let me be more clear, since my post was a bit contradictory and poorly worded: Braun and Girardi are what caused that pairing to seriously tank, and have those big time struggles that we’ve seen. But Vlasic and McDonagh’s decline are what led to their pairings from dropping off from one of the very strongest pairings in the NHL, and the decline of Vlasic/McDonagh obviously is/was a much bigger deal as a whole.
Perhaps the decline of Braun and Girardi are what caused both pairings to have some of the awful games and performances that we’ve seen from them. Perhaps the decline of Braun and Girardi are the primary reason that fans will say “man, we lost that game because our top pairing simply could not handle the opposition’s top players, and they made stupid mistakes that led to goals against.” But the decline of Vlasic and McDonagh are the primary reason that fans no longer say “man, we won that game because our top pairing totally neutralized the opposition’s top players, and they totally dominated possession”.
I would much rather have prime Vlasic-today Braun than today Vlasic-prime Braun. And the same goes for McDonagh and Girardi. That’s my point. Even if the decline of the Vlasic and the McDonagh of the pairing is less steep, it’s still more of a big deal. McDonagh is not the same player that he once was. Girardi left NYR and McDonagh was still not the same player, and when McDonagh went to Tampa, when he didn’t play with Girardi, he was still not the same player. He will probably never be that same player again and I’m almost certain that it’s the same thing with Vlasic.
I find it really hard to believe that Vlasic hasn’t declined as well; I think pinning it all on Braun is wishful thinking It’s difficult to use metrics to compare which defenseman has tanked their pairing, defensively, when they played almost all season together and the times they played without one another were in very different situations with very different partners. The team relative metrics for Vlasic away from Braun do look very strong, but the sample size isn’t great and the circumstances are wonky enough to the point where I’m not sold on them. Personally, the biggest reason that I believe Vlasic seriously declined this year is the eye test. I felt like a lot of the critical errors by the Vlasic-Braun pairing were due to major mistakes by Vlasic, and I thought he was clearly a less effective player than he was in 2016 and 2014.
Perhaps I am wrong, and Braun really has tanked that pairing. The advanced metrics certainly do suggest that Vlasic will do better when paired with somebody else. But I just find that very hard to believe after what I just saw from Vlasic all season long. I would be so ecstatic, though, if Vlasic got a new partner and was still at his 2014-2016 level.