GDT: SENS in Vancouver, Tuesday night 10:00 pm on TSN

[18Hossa]

But the question isn't whether or not you are worried, it's about whether or not he'd have helped. Does wearing down an already depleted Boston team not help?
I guess you could argue that his lack of offense, or defensive play would hurt us more than wearing down the opposition would help, but the Pens are a better offensive team, and probably a better defensive one at that point too, so why would it help there and not in Boston.

In the end, it's all academic, as you can't say one way or the other for sure. Harpur and Claesson both did fine jobs stepping in, so any loss was certainly mitigated.

For all the criticisms Boro gets though, I find his perceived poor defensive play vastly overstated. Sure, he makes mistakes, but his second effort is second to none; the guy has save many more goals against than given credit for in his limited icetime. The numbers also suggest that despite all the complaints about his play, we don't actually allow many more quality scoring chances when he's on the ice, in fact, it's typically the opposite.

He's far from a perfect player, but gets far too much flak imo.

I think the criticism was more fair in previous years. Last year he generally played alright.
People see what they want to see though so they only focus on his mistakes.

 

[Micklebot]

I think the criticism was more fair in previous years. Last year he generally played alright.
People see what they want to see though so they only focus on his mistakes.

Oh don't get me wrong, I was one of those criticizing him in previous years. Heck, last year in pre-season he was horrendous and I was questioning the decision to have him in the lineup opening night. He proved me wrong by really embracing Boucher's system.