Quoting: Byrr
'Anyone can hold on to the puck. That is never the issue.'
Well, no, they can't. That's a massive issue for a lot of NHL players and is one of the leading causes of goals in the NHL. I'm not sure what sport you are watching but its definitely not hockey.
'You got a guy who has 18 games, 4 assists and is a =/- of 0.'
You don't like analytics, ok. Lets look at this with more basic stats that you seem to be a fan of. Sandin is a 2nd year NHL defenseman who's contributing 1 point every 4 games and playing his opponents evenly. This is the guy you are calling bad, 'not an NHL player', and even the stats you want to use don't back it up.
'This is why no one respects leafs fans.'
The fact your own stats don't even back up your point of view here is showing why no one here respects your opinion.
Yawn....
I hate to break it to you, NHL players don't get in trouble holding onto the puck. Teams can easily play keep away. Defensemen can easily hold the puck behind the cage.
Where they fall apart is moving the puck up ice, battling to gain possesion. etc...
Like I said, Simon is an analytics wet dream. If you want a guy who can hold Corsi he's your man, on the cheap too. You know why he's that cheap......he isn't very good at hockey.
He's never gonna be the guy to win you games, maybe help you not lose them(as in, play keep away), but he's not going to win them. You can cry the numbers all day. These are facts.
Passing the puck around isn't the hard part. Point to Point to eat up clock and build your corsi doesn't mean anything.
You can't look at him and say, he creates offense. He does not. You can't look at him and say he stops the opposition rush, he does not. He's the guy who gets beat on it.
You insist on making him more than what he is. "two way dominance" by god, sit down. Next you will want him on the Canadian Olympic team.
My own stats show that he doesn't do much on the ice, let alone display "two way dominance".
Thanks for that, I'll remember that one.
He's not winning games for his team, and he's not "not losing" games for the team either. His 5v5 play is a -1 with twice as many turn overs as takeaways. 3 assists. You're over here trying to turn that into something. It would be one thing if the points were low and he wasn't costing his team goals in 5v5 play. But with the talent on the forward group they have, he shouldn't be a minus in 5v5 play or a 0.
There maybe one day when he's a better NHLer. But that day is not today. There is no real sign there that it's going to be tomorrow.
You can bark up the tree all day but this teams defense is holding it back. But TOR fans are free to think moves like Ritchie and Simmods are the reason it doesn't win.
The problem has been, and continues to be the blue line. They have solved none of it.