Agreed that these are two different things, but why are these not both valid criticisms of his game? I don't think "showing emotion and fire" means crying like Ryan Smyth. I think it means having a mean streak to your game where you thrash people in front of the net and initiate contact on the boards. He shies away from all that shit like he's allergic to contact.
Two distinct plays I remember from last night:
One was the 2nd goal against where he gave up the entire front of the net on a basically nothing play. He was looking at the puck at his feet instead of looking to put a body on someone and clear the net. Second play is something that happens all the time with him. Puck goes behind our net as the other team forechecks. Dobson does a play where he tries to kind of fake carrying the puck one way and then tries to go the other way while ducking under or spinning away from contact. Yesterday I recall it because they had just switched the camera to behind the net and you saw it clearly. The move didn't work, it was low percentage, he turned over the puck, and he was taken out of the play from a check. To me, that's where the "fire" and "mean streak" come in. Maybe there's semantics in what adjectives we are using, but the intent is clear: he has no interest in playing the body. He needs to absorb that contact and make a safe easy play, but he's trying to skill his way out of it.
He's 6'4 and 195.
For comaprison:
Pelech 6'2 210
Pulock 6'1 213
Romanov 6'0 208
Mayfield 6'4 209
Aho 5'10 186
He needs to be trending toward Mayfield and not toward Aho. He has the body and frame to be an all around stud with offensive skill. Shit Leddy was the same weight but 4 inches shorter, and he was also a guy that was criticized for having no defensive nastiness. Dobson is lanky and needs to fill out so he can be stronger and harder to play against. But he also needs to be tough to play against through his choices. Maybe that will come with a stronger frame and more weight, but right now it looks like a style thing. I have a sense that if Dobson could play a whole game and avoid being checked, he would prefer it.
There's a reason why he doesn't kill penalties. I was looking at this the other day. I'm doing some inference here, so interested in other's takes. Dobson and Aho rarely kill penalties. It's the other 4 that do it. Aho gets 31 seconds of PK time a game and Dobson 29 seconds. Dobson's PP goals against per 60 is 3.57 and Aho's is 1.75. Obviously with 30 seconds per game, that's not a ton of data, but still pretty interesting. I was also looking at the stat of shots created while short handed (shots on goal, shots blocked, shots missed, etc.). Here are the stats for the season next to their SH TOI per 60:
Mayfield: 2:52 SH TOI per 60 | 1 shot created
Pelech: 2:42 | 3
Romanov: 2:03 | 4
Pulock: 1:44 | 10
Aho: 0:31 | 4
Dobson: 0:29 | 42
I'm trying to interpret that (others are welcome -- I'm not that smart). He's on the PK basically 10 seconds per game (given his 20 minutes of ice time), and has twice as money shots created shorthanded then the rest of our defense combined. One theory: he's out there when the power play is expiring and the Isles are moving up the ice. So basically, he's extremely sheltered, still. In his 4th full season as our tallest defenseman. But I don't think the above is just size related. And it certainly isn't age related. If Dobson put on 10 pounds but played the same way (so essentially the same weight as Romanov and 4 inches taller), he likely still won't get PK time over Romanov because of how Romanov plays the game.
