Quoting: twodollarlobster
whatever,I'll copy it:
"It's a hit piece by a humorous blogger. I love JP, but he's not presenting himself as a journalist or any sort of a scientist This article doesn't mention that Erskine's zone starts were 50/50, in the 14 minutes per game he played that year (
https://www.hockey-reference.com/players/e/erskijo01.html) whereas Orpik starts 43% of his shifts in the offensive zone, and the rest behind the red line, and plays 20 minutes a night (
https://www.hockey-reference.com/players/o/orpikbr01.html). Orpik plays the toughest minutes of anyone on the Caps this year. Last year, when Alzner played the tough minutes, and the Caps had better checking wingers like Williams and Winnik, Brooks was +32. He's a workhorse.
The Caps are 4-0 in games when Brooks Orpik plays more than 23 minutes. They are 1-0 in games when he tops 27 minutes of time on ice. Since playoff games keep going until someone scores, every team needs a couple defensemen who are okay playing a half hour or more, and can just coast through keeping the other team from scoring goals.
If you're going to hate Brooks Orpik, hate him because he's violent, and a danger to every opponent he plays against. Not because he's taking on the toughest workload of any Caps defenseman since Langway in his prime."
--me
I'll add that in games when Christian Djoos plays15:00 or more,the Caps are only 4-4-2, so while this slideshow seeks to assert that the problem is Orpik, the problem is a lack of team defense. Orpik is the best answer they currently have. While he could use another experienced, defensively solid left defenseman to share the job with, getting rid of Orpik is a serious loss to the Caps right now.
Hockey coaches, like other managers, try to promote their employees to the level of their inompetence. For Djoos, that limit is about 14 minutes, with mostly offensive zone starts. Much beyond that, and the Caps become a .500 hockey team instead of division leaders. For Orpik, the limit has not been reached yet.
That is impressive enough on its own, but even more impressive when you consider exactly how much older John Erskine is than Brooks: three months.