So they adjusted last year to get more high percentage shots which you saw in the playoffs last year against the Pens and against the other teams they played.
What jumped out to me in last year's series vs the Caps is the played a very opportunistic style against us. They basically trapped, waited for us to turn it over, and beat us on a lot of rush plays. It was a smart way to play us and I always wondered why so few teams we played had really tried to clog it up to the extent they did. Like if you look at our opponents in the back to back Cups, here's how I'd shake it down:
15-16:
Nyr - tried to skate with us, and couldn't
Wsh - tried to skate with us, and couldn't
Tb - played trap and counter hockey, and almost beat us
SJ - tried to skate with us, and couldn't
16-17:
Cbj - tried to run us out of the building with hits, got embarrassed
Wsh - tried to carry play against us with an aggressive forecheck. It worked with our depleted d for 6 games, but then we turned the tables on them in game 7 with a surprisingly aggressive forecheck and they couldn't handle the sudden strategy change. We caught them completely offguard for one game, and that was all we needed after stealing 3 others.
Ott - tried to trap us, and it almost worked. One goal away from that awful team being in the Cup finals. Great coaching by Boucher.
Nsh - tried to out skate us. It did work early on, but Nashville didn't have the horses up front to do this all series. Eventually Sid and Geno woke up, and Nashville didn't have the forwards up front to beat us in a speed/skill game.
17-18:
Phi- Honestly I think they tried to play the right way and played defensive, but their goaltending was horrible, and you can't have bad goaltending against us. Just can't.
Wsh - Played trap and counter hockey. Waited for us to turn it over with high risk plays, and we played right into it. Streak of Sully playoff wins ended.
So what's the common theme here? Teams that played trap and counter hockey instead of trying to skate with us nearly beat us several times, and then one of them (Wsh last year) finally did manage it. Teams that tried to skate with us, our out skill us, our play physical against us, did not fare so well.
Since then the rest of the league has gotten faster and we're no longer the top speedy team. We're still fast though. Jessie had an interesting article today about how the Pens need to use an aggressive and fast forecheck in order to make up for our crappy defensive structure and weak goaltending. It makes sense. My thought was that we should actually be shelling up more than we have because of our weaker defense and goaltending. I think a coach like Trotz would probably try to have us play a more disciplined game to account for our weaker defense/goaltending.
But playing really aggressive to make up for a weak defensive structure is definitely a possibility and I think is viable. It's definitely how Sullivan is trying to have the Pens play. Thing is, as Jessie points out in his article, we're not always committing to that style of play. Score effects is always a thing in hockey but we've been especially bad about protecting leads and staying committed to Sullivan's style for a full 60 minutes. I would agree with Jessie that ideally the Pens should stay aggressive all game but since that's not always going to be easy to do I'd contend they really need to figure out also how to structure themselves in the neutral zone so that in the event aggression isn't possible on a breakout they don't get completely carved up like they have been.
Woo. Dats a lotta words.
