Be critical all you want. Just be critical like an adult. I mean how many times today have I said criticism is fair, just that your original posts were off-base and out of bounds. Also, If you don't mind, I'd love to see your work regarding six penalties costing UNH a power-play...
As for the +1, he has also contributed 19 PP points which brings him to +20 in actual GF/GA (additional PP-pluses and there have been at least a few are likely cancelled out by a few GA on the PK). That's a massive contribution, considering UNH only has 24 PP goals total (Your top D shouldn't be accounting for nearly 84% of your PPG and yet, without any real appreciation from the fan base, he does it). Again, be honest in your criticism, especially if you're going to cite +/- as a way of insinuating he's hurting the team by allowing too many goals against relative to what he produces...
He's cost them a few PPs - would you trade that for an entirely dismal PP by pulling him off the unit?
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Gildon is an offensively gifted defenseman, who still needs to improve in his own end and could stand to make simpler decisions when the play calls for simplicity. He's only 20 but he's been here for three years and UNH needs him to be great every night if they want to maximize team results.
^ That is a heavy is the crown, fair criticism of a team's best player. Not this drivel about benching him, calling him soft or calling him names. If you want to be critical of certain plays be critical, but be fair. And if you're only calling him out because he's the best guy and needs to be better than pretending he's the worst D on the team is just going to make you look foolish when apparently you don't even believe it to be true...
He is still UNH's best player/talent by far and contributes far more to the team than he costs them - even on his worst days. Certainly far more than some of the defensemen being lauded on this very thread today. If Gildon turned as many pucks over in dangerous situations as one in particular, people would want him cut and forced to walk back to Texas...
All turnovers hurt the same regardless of the size of the players' crowns. We all understand the psychology of the best player getting an unfair proportion of the blame, but Gildon is not the reason why an entire team melted down against a more physical UConn team*. That is an illegitimate criticism. There are plenty of ways to point out that Gildon made a mistake, took a bad penalty or made a complicated play without resorting to what you have consistently resorted to the past few weeks...
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* They've been the SMT's for decades, have zero truly physical defenseman and five of their top-six offensive forwards are all under 5-10 and 180 lbs (in reality, if not quite by roster standards) but when they get out-sized by UConn its all on Max?
