You are the numbers guy, and I don’t want to give you homework - but I believe 5/44’s last minus game before *I think Nashville* was *i think* in November. That’s really really good … and the purpose of hockey. To try not to get scored on, and to score.
Obviously there’s not a lot of offense coming from that pair - I totally get that, and it’s something that could improve with a trade for a more potent puck-moving guy to play either side. But man … I see the criticisms of both guys (I’m even starting to like and defend Chatfield) and I don’t get it at all. Last year Smith/Cole were fine - they also took a metric shit-ton of penalties it seemed (again, I expect a teacher-like dressing down from you after this).
I agree with what the pairing looked like last night - chaos. I’m sure some of it could be attributed to unfamiliarity with each other, but it looked downright awful.
I’d be really curious to see what would happen if Skjei or Slavin went down for a bit and they needed CDH in the second pair. I believe this season is the first he hasn’t played top-4 minutes since … the islanders? Granted last year he was in Chicago, but I believe his “numbers” as a defender were still pretty decent.
As a whole I think Chatfield is here to stay (they love him) … and I don’t mind at all. His speed makes up for so much. And, he’s getting progressively better at reads and coverage. Except last night