I think it might be more about the wingers than the D sometimes. In the top 9, I would classify all the wingers other than Justin Williams as a liability in getting the puck out. They are just so atrocious on the boards, that the other team funnels the play towards the boards, and then manhandles the winger and retains possession.
Sometimes I think this may be why Peters plays such an extreme system, because there's almost always guys on the wing that are very likely to make a mistake/lose a battle that will extend a possession once the other team gets set up.
This is absolutely true. It's both an offensive and defensive issue with our wingers.
Look at the number of times PER GAME that our wingers do an absolutely atrocious job of getting the puck over the red line. There are so many silly turnovers, little failures to make plays that ought to be routine but become fire drills in out own zone. Look at how often our defensemen are forced to cover both high and low options because a winger lost his assignment at the point.
That stuff wears on a defenseman. You can't play your game when you're constantly having to stop and backpedal, having to step out of position to chase guys who come loose high in the zone. You end up with guys chasing the play the whole game, which is exhausting both physically and mentally.
I see it most in Slavin this year. I don't think he got dumber over the offseason. But he spends an awful lot of time glancing over his shoulder because there's blown coverage elsewhere in the zone. The mistakes I'm seeing from him come down to a guy trying to do too many things at once, and I think that can probably be said of most of our defensemen at this point, particularly whoever has the misfortune to play with Skinner on a given shift.
