Jakey53
Registered User
- Aug 27, 2011
- 30,195
- 9,206
One thing that is a little frustrating to me (and this stems primarily from the blown leads in the first two games):
In every other sport, you know who you want out there in crunch time and what plays or calls to run to give the best chance of hitting your objective. In baseball, you identify who your best reliever is to hang on to a lead, given the scenario. You know who is able to pinch hit when you need to get a guy on base. Football - you have certain play packages to gain traction in moving the ball down the field, as well as preventing it. Granted, hockey does not always follow similar principles as I listed above, but it feels like we are just trying to go with the flow moreso than having a battle plan in mind.
I get that Tocchet is still learning the whos and whats of our team, but to me, that is the first thing that you identify - who are your best players for offense or defense and whom do you trust to play within the system properly when the game is in crunch time or in those moments when momentum shifts one way or the other?
So I get what Jakey is saying regarding the veterans to lead and do what veterans do, but it also doesn't appear that the coaching staff has also played its part in identifying the proper players and proper style in those scenarios either. We can choose to play up tempo and choose when to play a little more control. It just doesn't appear that everyone is quite on the same page for when to and when not to play that way.
I agree. If I have one fault with Tocc so far is just what you said. Cousins on the PP is a bit surprising.