Dennis Seidenberg (7-25-32 +3 $3.25M): Seidenberg had a solid year, but most importantly he absolutely dominated down the stretch and throughout the playoffs. The man is just a beast. He throws bone crushing hits and is just an ox on defense. He's not too flashy offensively, but as I've said before I look at the assists more than goals for most defenseman. He did catch Dan Smith sleeping and fired a shot on net from half ice.
Although his +/- is lower than what I would've expected, he still average 23 minutes of ice time per game (second only to Chara). Once he was paired with Chara for the playoffs, that average jumped to over 27 minutes per game and his +/- for the playoffs was a +12. Hopefully he can keep his high level of play from the playoffs going into the this upcoming regular season.
This highlight is for my Penguins fans reading.
I don't think we'll see these two paired with each other a whole lot. Maybe at the end of close games or important games, but throughout the season you didn't see these two matched up too often; spread the defensive wealth a bit over two lines.
Zdeno Chara (14-30-44 +33 $6.50M): Big Z. He shut up a lot of critics this season. He again had a great regular season, which was never the problem for him. He won the Norris trophy three seasons ago and was a finalist this past year. This year he erased the "never performs in the playoffs" label and led this team to a championship, getting rewarded by raising the Cup higher than anyone has ever done before!
During the season Chara led the team with a +33 rating and again in the playoffs with a +16. Looking at the +/- on a game by game basis can be misleading in my opinion. Just because a player was a -3 for the game doesn't necessarily mean they had a horrible game...it could...but it's not a given. But if you take a stretch of games, especially a whole season (law of large numbers math geeks out there?), it's a good indicator how well the team does defensively while that player is on the ice. Now remember Chara isn't going against the Ott's, Avery's, or Moen's of the league. Z is matched up against the Crosby's, Stamkos', and Kesler's, so to lead the ENTIRE NHL in +/- goes to show you how much of a shut down defender he is.
Not only does he match up against top players night in and night out, he's on the ice for over a third of the game. He averaged over 25 minutes a game during the regular season and over 27 minutes per game in the playoffs!!! How does he do it? He's a freak of nature. While Marchand is tackling 5 to 7 stages of a pub crawl in the offseason, Chara is tackling 5 to 7 stages of the Tour de France. That's right, you read correctly. FOR FUN Chara does some of the Tour de France stages. His condition is immaculate, but I just wish he wasn't so soft.
Chara's got the contract to keep him a Bruin for the rest of his career, and just by what I read, I don't think the contract nor winning the Cup will make him complacent. I expect yet another dominate season from the big fella.
2 comments:
great hit by ox on tanger. gotta respect a guy like seidenberg. he plays smart hockey- solid positional game and knows when to pinch. never takes a shift off.
Some facts about Big Z:
Life insurance premiums are based on how far away from Zdeno you live.
The opening scene of 'Saving Private Ryan' is loosely based on a game of dodgeball Z played in grade school.
There used to be a street named after him, but it was changed because nobody crosses Zdeno Chara and lives.
Zdeno and Superman once fought each other on a bet. The loser would have to start wearing his underwear on the outside of his pants.
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