Strong starts and collapses

[Iron Balls McGinty]

I think we all have seen the trend that this team seems to have some strong starts. They also tend to fold up once the opposing team starts to push back, usually in the 2nd period. We've also seen many instance where teams score multiple quick goals in a very short period.

How much of this can get coached out of a player? I feel like you can coach skills and X's and O's but mental poise is something you either have by the time you make the NHL or you don't.

Do we have a collection of soft players who are what they are? We are the exact opposite of being a hard team to play against. Defense seems to be the softest portion. Based on what we've seen so far, are we just lacking some pieces or do we see the potential of the core of group to improve?

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[majormajor]

I think we all have seen the trend that this team seems to have some strong starts. They also tend to fold up once the opposing team starts to push back, usually in the 2nd period. We've also seen many instance where teams score multiple quick goals in a very short period.

How much of this can get coached out of a player? I feel like you can coach skills and X's and O's but mental poise is something you either have by the time you make the NHL or you don't.

Do we have a collection of soft players who are what they are? We are the exact opposite of being a hard team to play against. Defense seems to be the softest portion. Based on what we've seen so far, are we just lacking some pieces or do we see the potential of the core of group to improve?

I don't agree with this. Emotional maturity comes with age just like mental and physical maturity.

 

[koteka]

I talked with a friend about this years ago in another era of bad CBJ teams. He felt that better teams don’t take us seriously at the beginning of games so they start slowly, but when the game is tied or we have a lead after the first period, they decide to hit another gear because they dont want to lose to a bad team. So it looks like we are playing worse when really it is other teams playing better.

 

[Iron Balls McGinty]

I don't agree with this. Emotional maturity comes with age just like mental and physical maturity.

Maybe a better way to out is it is something you SHOULD have by the time you make the NHL and if you don't have it, you aren't really ready to be here.

We can call it confidence or otherwise but skills and reactions are different than compete level. We seem to crap our pants and get overwhelmed when the other team puts on pressure. Is how they react to that something that can be taught at this level or just a natural instinct that is either good enough or it isn't?

 

[tunnelvision]

So it looks like we are playing worse when really it is other teams playing better.

If we judged Jackets' level of play solely by reading comments from the other team's GDT, one would think we never play well against anyone. If the other team is winning, it's because they're doing what is expected of them. If we are winning, it's because the other team just didn't feel like showing up that night. So keep that in mind: if we ever manage to win the SC, it's only because rest of the league have stopped caring!

 

[CBJWerenski8]

During the Hitchcock days it felt like we would do this. Start strong and fall apart in December. I think this happened up until the playoff year, and then resurfaced again the next year and he got fired. I think the same held true the next year under arniel, strong start, fade in December. Then finally the next year we were just awful all year.

Then that changed a bit during Richards’ era. We were pretty solid the whole way through, except his first full year (lockout shortened) when we were terrible and then red hot. Richards’ teams kind of started the mantra of slower starts with red hot finishes, and Torts piggy backed off of this and made it so that our starts were better, but kept the red hot finishes.

Doesn’t really add much to the question at hand but I do think this is typical growing pains from a young group. This isn’t abnormal, this is what we expected. The start was nice and fun, but we were giving up way too many good chances to stay afloat. Once Elvis cooled down, and he has significantly, so did our wins. This isn’t blaming him, it’s the team defense letting him (and korpi) down, but once he stopped playing vezina level, we’ve started losing.

 

[Monk]

During the Hitchcock days it felt like we would do this. Start strong and fall apart in December. I think this happened up until the playoff year, and then resurfaced again the next year and he got fired. I think the same held true the next year under arniel, strong start, fade in December. Then finally the next year we were just awful all year.

Then that changed a bit during Richards’ era. We were pretty solid the whole way through, except his first full year (lockout shortened) when we were terrible and then red hot. Richards’ teams kind of started the mantra of slower starts with red hot finishes, and Torts piggy backed off of this and made it so that our starts were better, but kept the red hot finishes.

Doesn’t really add much to the question at hand but I do think this is typical growing pains from a young group. This isn’t abnormal, this is what we expected. The start was nice and fun, but we were giving up way too many good chances to stay afloat. Once Elvis cooled down, and he has significantly, so did our wins. This isn’t blaming him, it’s the team defense letting him (and korpi) down, but once he stopped playing vezina level, we’ve started losing.

I'd be curious to see some sort of aggregate/average list of NHL teams by age since 2000, since I agree 100% with the bold.

 

[EspenK]

I'd be curious to see some sort of aggregate/average list of NHL teams by age since 2000, since I agree 100% with the bold.

Colorado is a great example of how the young guys matured and the team got better.

Toronto to some extent also.

Edmonton w(ho)tf knows?

 

[Monk]

Colorado is a great example of how the young guys matured and the team got better.

Toronto to some extent also.

Edmonton w(ho)tf knows?

But I imagine if Colorado was currently the youngest team in the league, the team wouldn't be as good. I imagine the correlation isn't very strong between average age/team quality as you move up the list, but I would also guess the bottom five youngest teams in the league, on average, aren't very good.

 

[EDM]

Intensity is something that can be learned as a player begins to realize just how tough it is to play at a high level in the NHL

 

[Monk]

But I imagine if Colorado was currently the youngest team in the league, the team wouldn't be as good. I imagine the correlation isn't very strong between average age/team quality as you move up the list, but I would also guess the bottom five youngest teams in the league, on average, aren't very good.

To follow up on this thought, I bet when there is an exception to the "5 youngest teams are bad" rule, that team more often than not plays in a "desirable" city.

 

[majormajor]

We seem to crap our pants and get overwhelmed when the other team puts on pressure. Is how they react to that something that can be taught at this level or just a natural instinct that is either good enough or it isn't?

Experience. Not really something that can be taught and it isn't innate. They need to have the experience so that they can get over the emotional response (in this case the response to not being able to escape pressure).

 

[LetsGOJackets!!]

Watching other teams through the years come into the NWA get in tight games with us & then will themselves to another level to beat us makes me recognize that in hockey it is a great team game, but there are certain guys that can literally push their teams to victories. We don't have those guys yet, the closest we were was Bread. Would Mario, Crosby, Sakic, Jagr, Peter the great have won in Columbus if they had our existing teams. Winning needs to be expected, and fought for.