I don't hate him. I admit I'm not his biggest fan. I'm hard on him because we pay him a lot to be a shutdown guy. He is pretty good defensively but I wish he was more consistent.
I don't see at this point how ANYONE can not have great respect for ALL our D-men. They have been an awesome shutdown defense and to be fair we have seen few mistakes made. And the mistakes they make seem to serve as lessons and they don't make them repeatedly. Don't forget that we've been playing the best the league has and killing it on defense. 7-0 in the last two games of the conference final against the most potent offense in the league this season when they were in their most desperate hours. I'd say all of them are now officially shutdown guys, even the youngster Djoos. They got us to the final, passing through the Columbus, Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay. The last two have explosive offense and we frustrated the heck out of both of them almost every game, even the ones we lost.
It takes just one weak link in the postseason and your chances are not good. I have nothing but praise for all of them. Sure, I get upset when one of them occasionally gets beat, but realistically I don't forget we have the best of the best trying to outwit, outplay, and outthink us, coming up with new tricks each game.
It's going to be a huge thrill to watch the finals against the Cinderella team. I especially can't wait to see our guys up against Nate Schmidt. I still can't believe we let that boy go. He was so obviously a superstar in the making since we first got him and saw him on the ice. I knew it would be either him or possibly Grubauer that the Knights would snatch up. I would have left Orlov exposed as he had less chance of being snatched up and I always thought Nate was the more skilled player. Don't get me wrong. I like Orlv too. The league gave the Knights far too many choices, which has become apparent.
