This year, the Canes had the best PP% during the regular season than they've ever had since Brind'Amour took over. The entire 5 man unit gets credit, not just who you want to pick and choose to give credit to.
His SH% the last 5 seasons:
5.3%, 5.1%, 4.9%, 7.1%, 5.4% (this year). It's pretty much the same as it has been for 5+ years. It was 4.2% in the playoffs this year. With the small sample size, that is not "degraded tremendously" as it's not statistically significant. The date doesn't back your statements up.
Ok, that's fair.
Clog the middle isn't how the Canes defensemen operate. If they are good skaters, then sure, but with the man to man defense they play, "clogging up the middle" really isn't what they do.
I'm all for if the Canes can get an upgrade to play with Slavin. No argument there. I'm just reacting to the hindsight you and others are displaying towards Burns after a poor playoffs and now changing the narrative of the entire 82 game season makes no sense.
Maybe he'll finally degrade enough to warrant a 3rd pairing next year, but he certainly wasn't one this year.
Sure but clogging the middle/being physical is a key playoff requirement.
Tampa, Vegas, Florida are recent examples.
It’s been part of the playoff world for decades. This year reminds me of 1983 when the Islanders shut down Gretzky and the high flying Oiler offense by keeping Wayne to the outside and playing physical. Oilers scored 424 times in an 80 game season and yet only scored 6 goals in the Finals, with 1/2 of that in one game.
Re: Burns - his Shot % was down 24% versus LY’s regular season and at 4.2% in the playoffs was really substandard. As you know, RBA finally saw the light and substituted Skjei which resulted in more success.
FWIW: I was not thrilled with Burns play second half of the year. As I’ve noted, I’m in the camp that he is no longer a first tier defensemen and he should not play with Slavin moving forward. I believe Year one was great, LY not so much.
What is apparent looking at his PIM over the years is that he has always been more of a finesse defenseman, no matter his size. That’s Ok in the Regular season but in the playoffs we need more from him given the enhanced level of playoff hockey. It’s particularly important since we don’t get much from our other top 5 either (to be fair he did have a few moments against Tro which helped).
Btw: Hindsight is important…that’s a review step that Players & Management should take after failures (and if they are part of a well run business , successes too); and sure, fans are always part of the hindsight chorus.
