I don’t consider Carlson our best Dman at all, IF, that letter “D” stands for Defense. Lo, and behold, it actually DOES stand for DEFENSE!!
He’s not even close, in defensive skills, as our BEST D man!
Now, putting salaries aside, you can say that amongst ALL of our Dmen, he may be considered the one with the most overall value to the team, but that’s because his contributions to the team, most certainly, come from the other aspects of the game, NOT from his defensive prowess!
I’ll give credit to his entire offensive production, as a whole. He also has a pretty wicked slap shot that I hadn’t noticed so much, in prior years.
It can correctly be said that his O numbers, are higher than they might normally be, because he has the fortune of playing with Ovi, including the PP! He does maintain that role decently enough, (as would many others, if given Carlson’s role). The point being that he does produce adequately in that role! Fair enough.
This is why he has the higher value, for the team, among his fellow Dmen, Let’s not confuse higher value with higher DEFENSIVE SKILL!
Except for a few rare flashes, John Carlson has only TWO positive defensive talents, IMO.
One is in blocked shots, the other is his poke check. THATS IT!
His puck handling is terrible. His mental awareness and defensive response is VERY slow, at best. He is NOT a hitter, OR a board battler, and is EASILY beaten in a foot race by almost anyone he deals with!
He acts panicky when getting a puck, especially behind the goal line, in our D zone, where there is a chance for us to regain puck possession. However, if he has an opponent closing in on him, he will slap shot the puck away, like you might do on a PK. Problem is, we’re 5 on 5, and he causes an UNNECESSARY ICING call! Bringing it back of course, to our Dzone for another face off! This is a STAPLE in his repertoire, and he does it ALL the time!! Horrible decision making, due to his slow processing mind, for time and space!
He SUCKS in the crease! At 6’3”, 215lbs, his ass is SOFT with a capital “S”, when in the crease.
He also gets beat, and sometimes, beat bad, one on one, during an opponent breakaway, where he has had plenty of time to cover the guy!
To be fair, he IS willing to lay down his body, in a 2 on 1 situation, so credit there, but SO many times, we’ve seen that when opponents forward, on a breakaway, covered at the blue line by Carlson, and the guy is easily able to get off a QUALITY shot, as if Carlson isn’t even a FACTOR in the issue!! TERRIBLE D skills there! Often times resulting in a disastrous goal!!
The “too numerous to mention” unnecessary stretch passes, that Carlson attempts from our D zone, rarely connect with the target, have a high probability of ANOTHER ICING call, and are normally “just another LOSS of possession change”, caused by Carly, that doesn’t get mentioned!
Best DEFENSEman?? Hell frickin NO! Not in any literal interpretation of the essential word, DEFENSE!!
Most valuable to the team, amongst all our D men? MAYBE! I’ll give you that it’s arguable, no problem, but it’s almost impossible to accurately demonstrate the lost offensive potential, as a direct result of the negatives that happen to us, throughout the game, from John Carlson’s ABYSMAL defensive abilities!
There is no accurate statistic to measure that!
Something, that I’m sure #74 is happy about!
Rush
