Got hemmed in his own end all night and couldn't get anything going in transition. Maybe some peoples cup of tea, but not mine. He defended well in his own zone, but dmen who get stuck there that often become a liability in the playoffs. It tires out your guys constantly defending and chasing the puck. Its kills your momentum. And more often than not eventually a breakdown happens or a lucky bounce and the puck ends up in your net.
Goal suppression is a skill. Ability to defend an absolute vital function in hard ice playoff hockey. Taking on opposition apex players in PK is incredibly important.
Need to look deeper than limited advance stats information that bias towards x-goals chance projections. Huge chunk of the game is based on own zone defending and matching and withstanding opposition top talent. Goal suppression guys that play 20 minutes, start in a significant hole with heavy d-zone starts have value as evident in the trades for these types of players. Obviously you don't want a d-corp made of these players but they do critical heavy lifting work based on heavy own zone goal suppression, coaches trust to give them big minutes and play in critical situations like PK against elite opposition and close out situations. Even the elite teams spend 36-40% of games in their own end.
Funny how people were calling Edmundson the worse defenseman in the league yet put him on a better team and he's suddenly a +16 20:00 min defender on the NHL second best GA teams in the league.
In Carlo's case he will be a great complement to the Leaf's top offenseman, add valuable experience and critical moment defending work on PK and key situations in tightly contested playoff hockey. He was a top minute PK for Bruins last playoffs that was rivalling the Oilers own non sustainable 94% PK. His role is the help teams to weather zone time against opposition elites that's going to happen for every team and do the dirty work required to win games. Not sexy stuff when you start in a virtual hole every shift but absolutely essential to winning hockey games.
There's a reason NHL team look deeper than x-chances projections and value goal suppression skills and abilities within the mix of talent required to win playoff hockey.
EDIT: Just to add Colorado was an absolute wagon in the game last night. This was a four line domination that heavily tilted the ice and scoreboard, 34 shots to 21. Toronto walked into a buzzsaw and its new guy Carlo without a practice held up with the top toi, 22:04 and pk minutes 3:31, 0 +/-, and 6 blocks, 57.1% EV d-zone starts. All situational zone time 88.5 dz adding big pk time against a lethal Avalanche power play.
