Stammertime91
TBL: TEAM OF THE CENTURY
Down 3-0 going into the 3rd and you don't register a shot on net for 9 and a half minutes. Is it a coincidence everybody on this team sans Point continued to attempt a dump and chase until the end? This look like a game where the players followed the system to a fault, looked like they did what they were told until the end. Those last 4-5 minutes where everybody just looked defeated looked like the start of what could be Cooper losing the room, I've never seen a team go down like that before, they just completely stopped fighting.
This is what was so sad. The empty net goal was basically telling everybody to just screw themselves that watched all season. The less time on the clock, the less of an effort there was. It got worse as the game went on.
You can play an effective dump and chase regardless of how your opponent is playing. Two parts and it's not rocket science, the speed and placement of the dump in and the retrieval. It sounds dumb as shit even explaining it given the name but I think Tampa failed on both parts. Soft dump right to Holtby followed by retreating and not retrieving. Nobody even bothered to retrieve a puck.
Even if dumping it in isn't working, you have to start pulling their guys out. Cooper did none of that. Not only did he do nothing there, we also did nothing to stop the neutral zone. They made one pass from the back of their net and before we contested them, they got our blue line 9/10 times. 9/10 times it took us 2 or 3 failed.clearances and 2 or 3 passes just to get the center ice. By then, we dump it in and make a line change. We played such a cowering and inept brand of hockey. That was worse than our 2nd half of the year.