Comparing Jeff Schultz

I started to do career number also, but by the time I got started last night I didn’t have the energy as it’s a lot harder to track down some of the info…TOI and hits specifically. But, as you can imagine, the rankings are pretty much the same because it’s such a small sample. I’m more curious about how his career numbers stack up against other top tier defensemen when they were 22/23. But again, some of the stats are harder to find when one is talking about career numbers and guys who were 22/23 3-8 years ago.

The point I was/am trying to make is that he is a young defenseman and it takes and most defensemen don’t mature over night. Caps fans are spoiled because they didn’t have to wait for their top players to mature….they’re world class talent. I’ll do another one with defensemen when they were Schultz’s age and with about his time in service…(# of games). I think you’d be surprised…

The fact that Aaron Asham walked around him on Tuesday doesn’t negate the argument that he’s a strong defender…but the problem with being a defensive defenseman that doesn’t hit or score very often is that when you make a mistake it’s all the more noticeable….Green makes mistakes all of the time, but we, as fans, expect him to score goals so he is judged almost like a winger not a dman.

+1

Exactly. Even great goalies have allowed goals to stay at home defensemen and fourth liners to score on them. Even great scorers miss the net. Even bad passers miss wide open passes. Shultz has played 156 games in his career and the fact that he got beat by a bad player once doesn’t negate everything else he’s done.

What’s also worth noting is that Shultz was tied for second in +/- (tied for first among defensemen) his rookie year and was fourth overall (first among defensemen) in +/- last year, so it’s not as if this season has been a fluke.

I agree 100% that Schultz doesn’t get the credit he’s due because most of the good things he does go unnoticed and his mistakes are more obvious because he’s a defenseman, though I think part of it is people rely too much on knee-jerk reactions. For example: the most common complaint about Schultz is that he isn’t physical enough, but being physical isn’t necessarily a good thing, as evidenced by Shaone Morrisonn is yesterday’s game. Mo laid a pretty big hit on a Florida player near the Capitals bench and the crowd loved it. Meanwhile, Mo is out of position and leave Poti back as the lone defenseman for a two on one.

I’m a big Schultz fan and I can’t say it doesn’t bug me, but I think it’s inevitable that a big, stay-at-home, un-flashy defenseman like Schultz is going to be a whipping boy for a significant portion of the fan base no matter what.

You actually read the boards?

Along the same line with +/-, as I’ve started compiling the career numbers, ol’ 55 has a better +/- than anyone else, to include Monsieur Green.