Stalwart Brodie aims to regain old form
On the ice, he has seldom looked like his old self.
Admittedly, Calgary Flames defenceman TJ Brodie hasn’t necessarily been feeling like his usual self, either. Not consistently, anyway. “It’s definitely not the start I wanted to have. Some games have felt good, some games haven’t,” Brodie said after Wednesday’s practice at the Saddledome, offering an honest assessment of his own performance this fall.
“This game is all about confidence. You watch guys, they get a little bit of it and they go on a streak and they build off of that. It’s just a matter of getting that first step and then taking the second one. I feel like so
This game is all about confidence. You watch guys, they get a little bit of it and they go on a streak and they build off of that.
far this year, especially for me, I’ve had a good game and then the next one, I almost take a step backward and it doesn’t go the way I want it to.
“It’s just a matter of building and continuing to get better.”
Brodie was a big reason for Calgary’s sluggish start last season — they were 2-7 while the smooth-skating rearguard recovered from a broken bone in his paw.
The Flames (5-8-1) have once again stumbled out of the starting blocks, but this time it’s with Brodie in their lineup.
Although he remains one of the NHL’s most underrated back-enders, the 26-year-old has — like all of the Flames’ go-to guys — underwhelmed in the first four weeks of the new campaign.
He has only two assists in 14 outings, not even close to the pace that he set en route to career-best totals of 39 helpers and 45 points in 2015-16.
Heading into Thursday’s date with the Dallas Stars at the Saddledome (7 p.m ., Sports net Flames/ Sportsnet 960 The Fan), Brodie has been held off the scoresheet in five straight contests, which equals his longest offensive dry spell of last season. He’s already skated through a seven-game slump this fall.
Of course, when you’re not putting up points while also matched against opposing stars, your plusminus can get ugly. And Brodie’s has. Prior to Wednesday’s puck-drops around the NHL, he ranked deadlast among all defencemen with a minus-10 rating.
“I feel like I haven’t really been involved as much offensively this year as I was last year. I think maybe jumping up a little bit more might prevent us from playing in our own end,” Brodie said. “Early on, I was trying to jump but then if the puck gets turned over, then it could be a chance for them. Once that happens, and once we give up so many goals, you almost pull on the reins a little bit and sort of stop doing it to try to prevent the other team from scoring.
“I think, for us to be effective, we have to force other teams to play defence.”
In what could be a case of Brodie being his own toughest critic, Flames head coach Glen Gulutzan insisted after Wednesday’s workout that he is pleased with the amount that all of his blue-liners are joining the attack.
And he doesn’t seem the least bit concerned about No. 7, who is logging 23:40 per night and has been reunited with captain Mark Giordano on the top pair.
“I think every player, especially the real good ones, have some trouble at some point in the season. (Brodie) just happened to have it early,” Gulutzan said. “I just see the work ethic he puts in. He works hard. He looks after himself. He cares. So all those factors are there, and his game is going to come around to where he wants it to be and where we all want it to be.
“But he’s played some really good games. Early on, sometimes consistency can be an issue, but I think the way he prepares himself, he’s going to get on a roll that he wants to be on.” For Brodie, the sooner the better. “We know how we have to play, and I know how I have to play. It’s just a matter of doing that,” he said. “When things are going bad, you make one mistake and sometimes you dwell on that mistake and it makes things worse.
“If things don’t go the way you want them to, you have to forget about it and move on.”