WHERE’S MIKE GREEN?
May 15th, 2009 | by Scott Madore |For a defensemen who gained a ton of following and media attention for his remarkable 31-goal regular season effort (in just 68-games), Mike Green has been a porous playoff performer. He has but one goal in the Capitals 13 playoff games and is a minus-2 in the 2009 playoffs, worst among Capitals defensemen and second-worst on the team! Green hasn’t been rushing the puck like he did all regular season long and has been trying to focus more on playing safe defense.
Okay fine. So generally, defensemen, if they’re not contributing on offense, they’re playing shutdown defense, right? Well, not Mike Green. He’s been less than dominant in his own end, particularly in front of his own net, where he’s been far from a dominant crease clearer, hence his minus-2 rating in the second round series. In addition, he has ZERO goals in the six game series against the Penguins.
Overall, Green has been a disappointment, both offensively and defensively in these playoffs. If he steps up and plays ‘his’ game in Game-7, Washington can be a dominating force. But that’s one really big ‘IF’?
