jake may well be some what miscast in the role as top pair matchup guy. his instincts sometimes are questionable and he seems occasionally slow to process fluid situations- which happens sometimes in ice hockey lol. but for the most part, hes done very well. he eats minutes, coach finds him dependable and he stays out of the box plus hes been healthy. he can log a ton of ice and play both PP and PK. sounds like a top pair guy to me.
the problem is his partner. brady hasent developed and those 2 together are sometime a comedy of errors and that translates directly into ghastly goals against.
this defense continues to struggle at preventing dangerous scoring chances become they just yield too much ice and back in as though they are being taught to do just that.
its as though stepping up and getting burned is the only consideration and thus, they step back and give space.
to me they play a very passive protective system almost like there are 2 marc staals on every pair and they all play like staal plays. dont go up ice, dont get caught flat footed in no mans land and dont step- do something stupid- and create odd man chances against. they play afraid.
you listening lindy ?
