JackSlater
Registered User
- Apr 27, 2010
- 19,770
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1 WHC 11 years ago. He was busy for 3 years of the decade that followed, but instead of sucking it up once or twice for the cause, he preferred hanging out with his pals in London playin pingpong and drinkin beers.
And I'm not surprised his ability suddenly eroded. I predicted it when he was 25 and at the top of his game. He certainly falls way short of Crosby's off-season dedication to his craft. and that is the cause. I would cut him no slack or give him any preferential treatment based on what he did between the ages of 19-26. but that's just me. If we get an NHL season and he manages to perform something like the younger version of Doughty, then he should be considered. but lacking that... I prefer moving on from Doughty. perhaps he was part of the problem why L.A. was crap and not the other way around.
I would hope that you would consider beyond the age of 26, for instance when Doughty was a close second in Norris voting as a 28 year old. I'm still very content to take the pedigree of a defenceman who has consistently been excellent internationally over most of the right side options. This isn't the early 90s and Canada's right side options aren't Bourque, MacInnis, and Coffey with Murphy waiting in the seventh spot. It's Doughty vs good players but not all that many elite options. If the sample size grows and Doughty looks bad all the way into a 2022 tournament then yes he may not be selected. I'm unconvinced though that a guy whose offence is still sufficient and whose defensive play has been poor while his team has been a tire fire (while less than two years ago he was winning polls for best defensive defenceman in the NHL) is done.
Hopefully there will be plenty of games to assess players should a tournament take place. Had everything gone in an ideal manner then there would have ben a relevant Olympic tournament in 2018 to look at as well.