Calgary Flames: The Ongoing Woes Of Kris Russell

The Calgary Flames need all hands on deck in these tough times. When one of your go-to defenseman is under-performing, that leaves you in an awkward position. That’s where the Calgary Flames are with Kris Russell.

Through 12 games, we would have expected someone like Deryk Engelland to be the Calgary Flames’ worst defender. But unfortunately, that title belongs to Kris Russell who in 12 games is a dismal -14, and the possession stats that accompany this seemingly arbitrary stat are not pretty.

Through this stretch, Russell has gone from a notoriously below-average possession defenseman to a complete implosion, posting a 43.5 CF% despite starting in the offensive zone 56% of the time. This is a big problem.

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Not only does this mean Russell’s offensive game is falling apart, his defensive game is now following suit. This might not seem like a humongous issue, but it is.

Engelland is no longer the Calgary Flames worst defender in terms of metrics, posting 53.6 CF% despite starting in his own end 39.3% of the time.

It shows that Deryk is able to suppress shots in his own end, while still moving his game into the offensive zone. Playing with Dougie Hamilton (an offensive beast) will do that to a fella. Where does this leave us with Kris Russell, though?

Hard to imagine that anyone would be interested in Russell at this point. But the rumour mill has been swirling about a potential deal for Russell to be dealt; this doesn’t officially fix all of our problems in one foul swoop. Far from it, as we have problems surrounding goal-tending as well as defenseman.

Seemingly every mistake made on the ice is ending up in our net and with a team-wide save percentage of 86.5% that poses just as big of a question. Where has this team’s timely goal-tending gone. That’s a discussion for another day.

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If Russell’s struggles were isolated to himself they would not be a problem, but it seems he is pulling everyone him down with him. His latest victim – Dennis Wideman.

Since Wideman is seemingly the problem and Russell remains in the top 4, we question Hartley’s methods and motivation to keep this struggling defender logging big, important minutes.

This doesn’t surprise me, as we can get a pretty good idea of how Hartley values players by the amount of games Brandon Bollig plays. But this frustrates me to no end.

Why is it that the Calgary Flames operate under the guise of ‘always earned, never given’, when clearly Russell is being gifted top 4 minutes for lackluster play? Throw whatever cliché you want at this, but Russell is not playing good hockey right now.

In fact, I think he’s due to sit for a few games, giving Ladislav Smid an opportunity. Since returning from injury, I have been surprised with Smid’s compete level. I think he is more deserving of ice time for the Calgary Flames right now, than Kris Russell.

But, that’s just me.

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What do you think? Should Russell see less ice time? Should he be a healthy scratch? Let us know in the comments section below.