More Recognition for Defensemen.

Now I have been grinding away in this league for years and something I have noticed is that defensemen, especially defensive d men, do not get the recognition they deserve in this league. Forwards and goalies seem to get special treatment whether it be by the LG rating system or by the unfair amount of records they can obtain compared to defensemen. If you take a look at the roster section you will notice that virtually every team’s defensive core is usually rated worse than forwards or goalies. Furthermore, why isn’t their records for takeaways or takeaway/giveaway ratio? Why are goalies eligible for 2 win records when they can obviously play many more games than skaters? Where is our separate skater win record and games played record? It’s bad enough that EA doesn’t count actual blocked shots (just shots that you press L1 to block) but defensemen are also getting screwed by LG. Anyways, the purpose of this post was to start a conversation about defensemen recognition and perhaps put pressure on the bogs to seriously take these points for consideration. #defensemenlivesmatter

 

I agree and that was the main purpose for why I started doing my own rating system. It was to give the defensive players and more rounded forwards more recognition but at the end of the day goal scoring is exciting and defense isn't so it will never be equally balanced. That's just how it is.

 

I agree,

At first i tought you meant from teamates... but your talking about Power ranking, and report cards right?

 

To be honest, there's really no stat to determine a dmans effectiveness. Even takeaways/giveaways don't really tell the whole story. To bad there arent more defensive stats like succesfull attempts vs 2 on 1s or 3 on 1's/2's etc. At the end of the day most forwards know which dmen will give them a long night.

 

Whether or not any one stat means anything is irrelevant. There are records for hits and penalty minutes and some people think those stats don't matter. It's a matter of opinion on which stats people think are more important than others but at the end of the day everything should be recorded and people have the right to have the records to which they earned.

 

Slo you're a fucking GOAT and anyone who doesnt recognize that can pound sand...

 

idk what your talking about, everything basically is recorded...
it's just not gift wrapped and presented like points in power rankings.

 

Basically I'm saying that if you get the takeaway record or takeaway/giveaway record it should be recorded as a record in your resume. And I think the LG rating system should maybe put more value in wins, discipline, takeaways and maybe even lack of giveaways.

 

One could argue that defense as a whole is a team system. Leave a defender in a 3 on 1 and they're probably going to lose that battle the majority of the time no matter how good you are. I know Mass has worked hard on his stats to help figure out a way to value defensive players more for the unsung things they do but when it comes down to it there just isn't really a definitive way to measure defensive skill on a statistical basis. For example, a good D man could end up not getting any stats in a game simply because the other team recognized this guy can clamp down on everyone and simply avoid going to his side of the ice the whole game. I mean if you're coming down the ice and see Duncan Keith on one side and Michael Rozsival on the other you're probably going to skate your way towards Rozsival's side every time or at least try to.

On top of that, if you're a D on a good offensive team that can really hold the puck in your chances for getting D stats are much lower as well. I mean just looking at my stats for this szn vs S8 I can see that clearly. I had almost 100 takeaways in S8 but my team was not good and we spent a lot of time in our own end. Where as this szn the Reign are good and we spend more time in the other teams end which also can correlate to higher giveaway numbers since you're passing around in a cycle more often now too.

After managing last szn and this szn I can tell you that when I watch film on guys on D I can pretty much tell if they're solid D wise within 5 minutes simply by where they position themselves and how they handle zone entries. You don't need pretty stats to show a guy is good. Sometimes you can just look and know. As for the rating system it's always going to favor offensive players simply because you can't win if you don't score.

 

One could argue your same theory works against forwards as well. Offense as a whole is a team system that depends on good defense including takeaways and giveaways. And I'll be honest with you won't meet many successful vets in this league that avoid a side because of the player. You can't expect to win while avoiding an entire side of the rink lol. You work your plays and improvise no matter what d man is on that side. You should never judge a d man based on 5 minutes or even 1 game btw. It's overall career stats that will clearly show trends. So are you saying that if a skater sets the record for most takeaways and best takeaway/giveaway they shouldn't get a record? Are you saying it's fair that skaters have to compete with goalies for single season win records? Are you saying records for hits and penalty minutes should be recorded but not takeaways or giveaways?? You don't really make much sense and maybe you don't have enough experience in this league yet to understand.

 

this has been a conversation for a long time. I agree with you that Dmen should be separated from Fwds and goalies for certain records. It would be unique and cool I don’t know how easy it would be to implement you would have to ask @Tris10 (some examples would be goals, assists, points, PIM) In terms of a defensive dman getting no praise, I tend to believe that if you are good people are going to know, whether it’s by having a large contract in bidding or just by putting up wins. But you have to be careful some people say they are a defensive dman because they couldn’t break out of a wet paper bag then whenever they get the puck in the ozone they just turd it or my all time favorite is dumping the puck along the boards because they have no idea how to do a proper zone entry.

 

@Tris10 @LG McDonald

 

Wins are the only thing that matter. This is a team sport, win and lose with your team. But don't worry guys, all the parents pitched in and everybody gets a trophy at the end of the season!