I have this weird theory that when Quinn got here and especially when we got Panarin/Trouba/Fox etc, they attempted to change their game plan to slow the game down to make the bang bang plays because they kinda just accepted the roster had no speed and tried to work around it.
Besides Panarin and Fox (who can absolutely slow games down if they want to) a lot of our roster tried to do this and just didn't have the skill. Buch was very guilty of this despite his great stats here and, in a way, I feel like he enabled some bad habits that Kreider and Zibanejad got that theyre only recently getting out of.
Strome is probably the worst offender. He has one move, pull up at the blueline and look for Panarin. He doesn't have the speed (or willingness, tbh) to make the quick pass and keep pushing towards the net and it makes it easy for the other team to just swarm Panarin.
Now that there's three more burners on the team and they're all on different lines (Brodz helps here too) the puck support dramatically improved over night since Gallant was stuck in a weird hybrid of *pressure the puck carrier and take space* and *stand still and hope the space makes itself* which made us look really ineffective for long stretches. I think this is evident especially because the not-new guys also look way different. When Strome is f***ing off to wherever, Panarin remembers he's a star that can take over games. Zone entries have been much more solid and we win many more 50/50 battles than we did before.
We saw in 2014 that adding just one fast skater to every line changes its outlook a lot. Now you have to keep up with them and you can't play slow.
Idk I'm rambling but to me it makes sense
We are getting through the neutral zone with speed. It pushes the defenders back and creates a lot of space.
Copp isn't a burner per se but he's really, really good in transition. On the Schneider goal, he waited before he got the puck to Panarin. He kept the defenders attention which in turn gave Panarin a little more space. Panarin then did something similar, drew in the defender and waited to get the puck to Schneider
It's a chess game on offense. Create space for your linemates, make defenders commit before you move the puck.... Normally Strome would have instantly deferred to Panarin. The defense would have swarmed Panarin and nothing would have come from that play.
We are now creating space and taking space away. We are swarming as a team. It's night and day
Copp and Vatrano are both our strongest when it comes to 'finding a soft spot' in a scoring area. They just don't sit stagnant and stare at the puck carrier in a covered position.
