So, I never had any particular negativity towards Williams before the playoffs started. Then the first round happened, when Abby subbed in for Williams and Detroit most definitely benefitted. Still, I never had any reason to believe Williams would be such a huge liability even if he wasn’t the greatest asset in the world (kinda like how Draper is playing this year…not much of an asset, but definitely not a liability, and his effort and determination is still there even if he’s not much effective anymore. That’s why I always liked the guy.)

Then the last two games happened. Especially the OT goal last game. When VS even points out poor play by Williams, that’s the last straw. I hadn’t seen the OT goal before last night (missed the end of a game due to a concert I performed in), and when i did I realized how much of a liability Williams was. Ok, so he made a bad shot that missed all the way around the net and caused a 2-on-1 break the other way…but the straw that broke my back was his half-a$$ed attempt at skating back. What I wanted to see was him diving to save his own tail, to break up that two on one, and quite frankly he had a chance to make a play there. But he didn’t. He let up at the last second and San Jose had a tap-in for a goal. I don’t care if Rafalski could have done better to take away the pass (he could have), I don’t care if Howard overplayed the shot knowing the guy coming in likes to pass more often than not (he did), the bottom line is Williams made a bad play and didn’t play hard enough to cover up his own mistakes.

/rant