More and more, it's looking like mobile veteran defenseman
Trevor Daley will be ready to play in Thursday night's regular season opener against the Florida Panthers. Originally said to be in danger of missing the opener while dealing with an upper-body injury suffered a week ago, Daley has made rapid enough progress to now be projected as a go.
After several days of skating on his own, Daley returned to full practice yesterday with his teammates. He was paired with
Jordie Benn at practice. Quite frankly, the thought of an opening-night third pairing of the older Benn brother with offensively skilled but defensively suspect
Kevin Connauton was a bit worrisome. Having Benn as the sixth defenseman rather than the fifth and pairing him with Daley is less of a minefield in ice time management.
The Stars' other opening-night blueline pairings figure to be
Stephane Robidas working with
Brenden Dillon and
Sergei Gonchar partnered with
Alex Goligoski.
The Robidas-Dillon pairing is a holdover from last season. The two worked together cohesively during Dillon's rookie season, and there is every reason to believe they will continue to be a reliable unit. While Gonchar can still handle a lot of minutes despite his advanced hockey age and Goligoski seems primed for a bounceback season, I still wonder about this pairing from a defensive standpoint against top-grade opponents.
Let's put it this way: I would not be shocked if, at some point this season, head coach
Lindy Ruff switches things up a bit. I could easily see Daley working with Gonchar, and Goligoski becoming a third-pairing player who primarily starts in the offensive zone and gets first-pairing power play time. I see that as Goligoski's most ideal role.
Goligoski can be a tough defenseman with whom to find exactly the right partner. To maximize his strengths and limit the exposure of his weaknesses, Goligoski needs to play with someone who can balance off his lack of size and streaks of defensive lapses yet who also has decent enough puck skills to allow Goligoski to join (or lead) the rush up the other side. There aren't too many defensemen out there who possess all of the above traits.
I understand the theory behind the Gonchar-and-Goligoski pairing. Gonchar has worked with a widely divergent array of partners during his 1,177-game NHL career. He has the size (6-foot-2, 211 pounds) and most certainly has excellent puck skills. I just worry a bit about the defensive coverages and potential for opposing odd-man rushes with two historically offensive-minded defensemen working together.
However, one thing about Gonchar that I've noticed over the years is that while he has never had a good rep for his defensive play, he can actually dial up that aspect of his game when he needs to. Gonchar will have to do that in five-on-five play if his partnership with Goligoski is to be a successful and lasting one this season. Even so, I think Daley is probably the better long-range option as Gonchar's partner.
The thing that I've always liked about Daley, apart from his tremendous mobility, is his versatility as an NHL defenseman. Depending on his partner, he can be the more defensively minded half of a pairing or else look to push the offense a little more. I wouldn't call Daley either an ideal shutdown defenseman or a high-end offensive defenseman, yet he is somewhat above-average in many different aspects of the game.
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