oldtimersask
Registered User
- Nov 12, 2023
- 54
- 72
For Skinner to have put up the numbers he did last year behind this defence was very impressive and earned him 2nd place in rookie of the year voting. Make no mistake, his outperformed what could be expected of someone in his position last year.I see people talking about how much worse they are defensively but don't you think that might have something to do with woodcroft changing the system right before the season? The roster is very similar to last season, there's no reason they should be this much worse defensively.
Now he is playing like a bogstandard quality goalie, even below average, and is being mercilessly exposed by our porous defence. I assure you there is no magic cure for a group of low intelligence players. The only thing I've seen that may prove me wrong is watching Ekholm go from being great in his first 5 games here before the shine wore off and he became one of the boys. I will say, although he is clearly our best D, he's overrated as well.
Why don't we go look at what defensive system Nashville is running and why Ekholm went from an all world defenceman to a mediocrity in the span of five games. For my money he got a big boost of energy from moving to a new team, and the Ekholm we saw in the playoffs up until today is the Ekholm who played in Nashville. Don't think there is a defensive scheme just waiting to be tried out that will fix what's wrong here. It's a personnel issue that can only be solved by replacing a significant amount of our D.