Pick 'Em: Brads or Brash?

Although Brads routinely gets bloodied in his effort to be a middle weight he is far more important to the team as a personality than Brash is. This will only become more true when the playoffs roll around. Remember that fighting basically stops during the playoffs.

Brads drops the gloves when he needs to, and is has a lot of hustle and energy. Most importantly though, he takes one for the team. As Sct112 says, there isn’t much fighting in the playoffs, and we’ve got other guys who can level their opponents when they want to (AO, ShaMo, Juice, Erskine, and even Green can lay people out from time to time). Brads brings guts and character to the team in a way that nobody else does.

Pretty much every time. He’s much more of a grinder.

I think it’s Bradley here, and by a lot, but wonder if the poll results would’ve been different if the question was asked before the Caps went into Philly sans Brash and had no problems with the level of physicality in the game. I know my vote wouldn’t have been any different, but I suspect others’ might.

Brash beating up the other team’s goon isn’t bringing much. I told friends after the Nashville game that they should scratch Brash in the playoffs unless they’re playing someone like the Flyers who really likes to goon it up. I think the “he keeps you from going after Ovi” argument is stupid, because think about Briere spearing Ovechkin in the pills two years ago… Did Briere get pummeled by Brashear? No. Brashear fought Andrew Peters instead. That’ll show ’em!

The argument for Brash here is that his presence intimidates people and prevents runs through the team’s goalies and star players. I don’t buy it (and if ever there was a night to test the theory, it was last night), but you can’t even make that argument with regards to Brads.

To me, though, what prevents runs through the team’s goalies and star players is capitalizing on power play chances, which the Caps have done an excellent job of all season. Want to run our guys and take dumb penalties? We’ll make you pay for it.

The problem here is that come playoff time, the refs tend to let a little more go, but the bottom line is the same – make ‘em pay for their thugliness (huh?) and it’ll stop. Certainly more than Donald Brashear fighting the opposition’s goon will.

Btw, this poll is going to be the first mano-a-mano “win” for Brads on the year. Nice.

One thing, among many, that I love about Brads — while he doesn’t much come out on top in bouts, he fights his opponents as if that other guy just punched his wife. I mean, the raw emotion on his face captured in some of his bout photos — priceless.

Of the stats, the key there is his GA/60 — on par with Steckel and Gordon. Respectable.

Plus, the guy’s got wheels — he’s a buzzsaw.

Is someone going to vote for Brash and then make a comment? Its only a forum, if there are two sides to the conversation.

He’s slightly more useful. Matchup will also dictate.

Brads is six years younger, and Brashear is rendered moot by Erskine as far as needing a “tough” guy (and Erskine is more valuable than both of them)

I think I might like to see a platoon if we played the Bruins, Flyers or Pens. I question if Bradley is big enough to handle a very physical seven game series in that role.

I’m shocked by the results. I think it’s Brash by a long shot. They roughly equivalent in their uselessness offensively. Defensively, Brads might be a little better, but only a little.

But Brash brings a lot more to the table in terms of the primary reason for either of them to be there — toughness. Even when he doesn’t fight, he’s a physical force with his crushing checks. Brads throws some checks too, but they don’t hurt or intimidate the way Brash’s do. Also, Brash’s presence helps keeps the other side from taking liberties. Yeah, I’d like him to assert himself more in that regard, but is there any doubt at all he’s still more of an initimdiation factor than Brads?

All that said, I like both in the lineup. But if I had to choose one, it’d be Brash and it wouldn’t be close.

So… who’ve you got?

A healthy Chris Clark.

I love seeing this post – when we were dealing with lineup issues earlier in the year before Clark went down, I was a big fan of sitting Brash. He is such a liability in every aspects except for the fighting and he does not seem to be doing a lot of protecting this year.

I love Bradley’s intensity, even though I understand how replaceable his skill is.

For all of the other reasons, too, but mostly for the blocked shots. He always takes one for the team.

In a quick defense of them both, I’ll say that 2/3 of the teams in the league wish they had to make this choice. Neither of these guys will ever be an all-star, but they’re not bad for eating up 8-10 minutes of ice time per game.

I took Brash. Yes, Brads has slightly better stats, but they’re not enough to make up for having a guy on the bench who can win fights when necessary. I’d also bet that Brash is a better player than most enforcers in the league, but I don’t have the stats at my fingertips to back me up on that.

I think Brashear would wip Bradleys ass, and I’d rather have him on the ice at any given moment, especially with the game on the line.

Winning a fight isn’t that important. A guy fighting and sacrificing his body is enough to motivate a team. When another team fights Brashear and the guy doesn’t royally get his ass kicked it’s considered a win for them. Big Georges even wrote an article about that.

The only important part about having Brashear out there is he’s a fan favorite and we all like seeing him pound people. As far as his effect on the game over Bradley or Erskine though? Negligible.

Bradley’s Plus/Minus is -1 not -9.

The Cap with the better team winning percentage deserves the red jersey

Brashear has a tendency to take bad penalties … Bradley has five minors and had drawn nine while Brashear has taken nineteen and draw eleven.

+1.

Also, despite the small difference in fights (11 vs. 9) their difference in PIM is definitely substantial.

Fights are pointless. I’d rather have an able body ready that can push people around and stay out of the box than someone who’s only skill is being able to fight. I think if you’re going to punish someone you should do it during the game, not as a side show.

The most telling stat up there: Bradley has 55 PIM, of which 45 are for fighting, meaning has only 5 minor penalties while he’s skating his usual shift. Brash has 121 minutes with 11 fights, that’s 66 additional minutes. I think there may be a misconduct or two in there, but even then, he takes way more minor penalties that put the Caps shorthanded.

In a pinch, Bradley can also kill penalties… the last person not name Jurcina that I want to see out there killing penalites is Brashear…