Observations XXVI full ** v. XXVII started

[Armourboy]

Sure, it was a mix of long bomb hope or someone on defense could do something. So the forwards only cared about the long bomb? Gotta get your numbers from somewhere?

I dunno the long bomb only really came from two players, Ellis and Subban, so I'm not sold it was really part of the system but rather those two just seeing the ice to make that play.

I mean sure the breakout they tried to get all the way to the blue line, but that's different than the play I'm talking about. The Arvi play always felt more like a counterattack, where what you are describing is more of the standard breakout from behind the net.

 

[Scoresberg]

There were some things I really liked in that game and some things I didn't.

I liked the five-man defense. It looked like the whole team was playing as a unit and not just individuals, something I think we haven't seen in a while.

I liked the creativity in the breakouts and in the offensive zone. When we weren't protecting the lead, we were creating chances in many ways, as to defenseman bombing it from the point and hoping for a favorable screen or a deflection.

I didn't like the special teams. The PP was too stagnant and predictable. I think we're having the wrong kind of PP units, I don't like Jarnkrok on the wing there and would try to get Granlund into the mix there. I feel like we're still not utilizing our forwards as well as we could on the PP.

The PK breakdown on that 2nd goal was just inexplicable. Ekky and Joey went after the same guy and Debrincat was left wide open in the slot. Just can't happen at this level.

Under Hynes, I think we're trying to go for more puck-control and more speed but especially there where we were protecting the lead, you gotta be smarter and not do the drop-passes we did. Just get the puck out of the zone as quickly as possible and there will be some odd-man rushes.

Speaking of, I think we still gave up too many odd-man rushes and got lucky a couple of times when the Hawks just couldn't settle for the scoring chance. I think it'll get better when we get Ellis & Fabbro back, but Tinordi, Irwin and Weber need to realize who they are as players and not go overboard in the offensive zone. All-in-all, our defensive coverage in cycles was good but we have to try minimize the opposition's odd-man rushes.

 

[Kat Predator]

It seemed like one of the changes trying to be implemented is not always rushing the play in our own zone. Rushing the play was leading to too many terrible passes and turnovers in our zone with forwards flying the zone before we even had possession. That simply had to stop if we were going to be a competitive hockey team that wasn't totally predictable.

It seemed very noticeable at times, although at others not so much.

It's really just game one of the Hynes era though, so I'm not expecting any changes to be flawless already.

 

[Kat Predator]

The PK breakdown on that 2nd goal was just inexplicable. Ekky and Joey went after the same guy and Debrincat was left wide open in the slot. Just can't happen at this level.

One of them was clearly out of position. It happens. It is explicable in that there is a new coach and he's clearly working on changing some things.

It was mentioned specifically that Ekholm had said in a pre-game interview that he was going to have to adjust his game and that he was being asked to do some things differently than he had for the last several years. Though, I'm not suggesting this breakdown is on Ekholm.

The good thing was that immediately after the mix-up, Hynes called the timeout and tried to get the team back on the same page. In some recent games, it seemed like a bad mistake like that would've led to a complete collapse for several minutes and losing the game.

 

[FossilFndr]

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