Bad defensive plays in big moments

[Terry Yake]

The easy winner here is Steve Smith in 1986.

The one I'll remember for my team was Lilja's turnover to Selanne in OT of game 5 of the 2007 WCF. I still think Detroit would win the Cup that year if not for that gaffe.

this one

still can't believe lilja made such a boneheaded mistake by trying to take it up the middle with two of the fastest ducks in selanne and mcdonald right there

 

[Big Phil]

That sounds like going ultra conservative "playing not to lose" type philosophy, and you could just as easily say that the next good shot-on-goal and we win the game. If the right play is to pinch, and it very often is, then those guys should pinch. Especially for players like Wilson and Phaneuf, telling them not to pinch is really hampering their natural playstyle.

I am sure we could do a thread where there have been gutsy pinches like that which worked out for the better, but if you are going to pinch, at the very least make sure you take the man coming towards you as well. The problem with Wilson's pinch is that he ignored two other Soviets AND the puck while he was doing this. I suppose you could say Bossy should have covered for him a bit once he realized he was taking that chance but that is really nit-picking against Bossy. This was all Wilson.

 

[The Panther]

That sounds like going ultra conservative "playing not to lose" type philosophy, and you could just as easily say that the next good shot-on-goal and we win the game. If the right play is to pinch, and it very often is, then those guys should pinch. Especially for players like Wilson and Phaneuf, telling them not to pinch is really hampering their natural playstyle.

I know what you mean, but I think there's a difference between a low-percentage pinch and crossing the blue-line to take a pass to shoot, or whatever.

It's easy for me to sit here and criticize them, but I do think those kinds of plays are simply mental errors by the players. It's one thing to do that in a regular-season game, but in overtime you have to play opportunistically and smarter.

 

[SAADfather]

Even though it was in the offensive zone, this immediately comes to mind. Game 5, series tied at 2. Hossa with a 5min major in the last minute of the game. All Nashville has to do is ice the last minute and they go back to Nashville with a chance to close. At about 8 seconds, Marty Erat makes a no look pass to the front of the net that goes off the side of the cage that sends the Hawks the other way. The rest as you know is history.



At least the Preds turned Erat into Forsberg...

 

[Plante]

Gonchar allowing Moen right by him during Halaks infamous run.

 

[GMR]

Even though it was in the offensive zone, this immediately comes to mind. Game 5, series tied at 2. Hossa with a 5min major in the last minute of the game. All Nashville has to do is ice the last minute and they go back to Nashville with a chance to close. At about 8 seconds, Marty Erat makes a no look pass to the front of the net that goes off the side of the cage that sends the Hawks the other way. The rest as you know is history.



At least the Preds turned Erat into Forsberg...

I speak for many hockey fans when I say that Erat can eat a fat turd for the rest of his life for making that play. That started this run the Blackhawks have been on.

 

[hototogisu]

Another one that comes to mind that's so infamous that I won't bother posting a Youtube, but CAN/RUS WJC (Eberle tying it with seconds to go)...the Russian player has a clear lane to skate the puck to the red line and dump it in or shoot for the net...instead of he shoots the puck a couple of strides before he makes it to the red line, the faceoff comes back on the icing, and the rest is history.

Phaneuf made a very untimely pinch that went the wrong way. Actually, I don't even think I'd call it a pinch. He tried to take Horton's (?) head off. This put him WAY out of position and left the likes of Kessel to cover up for him which wasn't his strength. The Leafs score there and the series is tied, as a captain you would have liked Phaneuf to avoid the big highlight reel hit and play it safe.

God bless Kessel though, he sure got on his horse and did his job tying up the pass. Personally I find it hard to blame Reimer (or any goalie) on a 2-on-1. That one's on Phaneuf. Horrible pinch, he was a mile away from the puck and was never going to get there before Horton.

Gonchar allowing Moen right by him during Halaks infamous run.

Definitely, but there's plenty of blame to go around there. Kunitz handed the puck to Moen and Fleury flat-out should have made the save. And the Habs were already up 3-0, not like it was in OT or anything.

 

[LeafsNation75]

God bless Kessel though, he sure got on his horse and did his job tying up the pass. Personally I find it hard to blame Reimer (or any goalie) on a 2-on-1. That one's on Phaneuf. Horrible pinch, he was a mile away from the puck and was never going to get there before Horton.

My thinking with Reimer was that it looked like a stoppable shot because the puck went slowly past him into the net.

 

[Crosbyfan]

Keith Magnuson let Henri Richard slip by him for the 1971 Cup winning goal.

Great play by Richard to break past him, keep his footing while protecting the puck, and then waiting out Esposito, but Magnuson really messed up on the gap control and was a little flat footed.

 

[Habsfunk]

Kovalev versus the Bruins. Gets a little slash, gives up the puck, looks to draw a penalty, skates into Souray and the Bruins score to win in OT. Fortunately, the Habs won the series, so it's more of a footnote than anything.

 

[LeafsNation75]

Kovalev versus the Bruins. Gets a little slash, gives up the puck, looks to draw a penalty, skates into Souray and the Bruins score to win in OT. Fortunately, the Habs won the series, so it's more of a footnote than anything.

The fact he was trying to draw a penalty I thought he wasn't really hurt that bad. Now I will admit I never been slashed on the hand with a Hockey stick and maybe he really was, however when I saw that I thought he was faking an injury and the ref never bought it.

 

[Big Phil]

Even though it was in the offensive zone, this immediately comes to mind. Game 5, series tied at 2. Hossa with a 5min major in the last minute of the game. All Nashville has to do is ice the last minute and they go back to Nashville with a chance to close. At about 8 seconds, Marty Erat makes a no look pass to the front of the net that goes off the side of the cage that sends the Hawks the other way. The rest as you know is history.



At least the Preds turned Erat into Forsberg...

I think this might be the beginning of the legacy of Kane/Toews if you ask me and their clutch play. Good for them, and to be honest even without this tying goal something tells me the Hawks force Game 7 and win anyway. But we'll never have to know.

The fact he was trying to draw a penalty I thought he wasn't really hurt that bad. Now I will admit I never been slashed on the hand with a Hockey stick and maybe he really was, however when I saw that I thought he was faking an injury and the ref never bought it.

Kovalev does have that reputation and throw I the fact that he bent over and ended up colliding with the other Habs player (Souray) that could have gotten the puck. I don't know, I wasn't in his head, but so many times we've seen a player who is clearly hurt do whatever he has to in order to clear the puck out like kick it with his skate or throw a hip check or whatever.

 

[Big Phil]

This one comes to mind as well. It is hard to see what really happened on this play but it was just a low percentage flip pass I guess to McDonald who really should have had 2 or 3 Isles players upend him of the puck and he sort of splits through all of them and puts it past Chico Resch.

 

[GMR]

I haven't seen anyone mention Harold Snepsts giving the puck away to Bossy yet.

The series ended up looking easy, but you never know how a different outcome in game 1 would have changed things.

 

[Big Phil]

I haven't seen anyone mention Harold Snepsts giving the puck away to Bossy yet.

The series ended up looking easy, but you never know how a different outcome in game 1 would have changed things.

Yeah it doesn't change the series at all, that was all Isles, but this was a poor one by Snepsts. Is he even looking at the clock when he does this? A wrap around the boards and the first overtime is over.

 

[Big Phil]

I am bumping this one up a bit........................

Yzerman got a lot of flack for Detroit's playoff failures back in the day. The Game 7 OT goal by Borschevsky is an example of him being slightly out of position. He doesn't take Clark on the wrap around and by the time he catches up to Gilmour he has already dished the puck off to Rouse. However, the big mistake in this play was a poor line change that led to Rouse getting the puck in the first place. Does anyone wonder why Rouse was able to walk in like that? Watch Shawn Burr (?) skate off the ice as the puck is being dumped in his own zone for a line change. I have no idea why he does this. The player who comes on for him isn't able to catch up to Rouse and this leads to the shot/pass to Borschevsky


I don't know what it was about 1993 and bad line changes in Game 7 overtimes but the same thing happened to the Pens. Basically their dynasty ended on a horrible line change and I still can't quite figure out who made the mistake here. The infamous David Volek goal was scored when the Pens had 4 players on the ice for an extended period of time. No joke. Watch it at 2:30:00. Here is how it unfolds. Dave Tippett and Ron Francis both go off on a line change and only Martin Straka comes on the ice. Just one player. Ulf Samuelsson crosses the blue line and tries to feed Mario who would have had a decent scoring chance had he gotten the puck. It goes off a skate and goes the other way, which would be fine if there was another player there. Straka not knowing another forward isn't there desperately tries to get back and Mario probably could have skated back faster but I doubt he catches Volek anyway. That 2-on-1 never happens with 5 Pens players on the ice. Who the heck was the Pens player that didn't come on the ice for the entire sequence?

 

[LuckyPierre]

Wade Redden's indecision with 2 minutes to go in a tied up game 7 ECF led to Ottawa's elimination.

 

[De Montreal]

2015 Playoff. Game 3 was about to go in overtime, and Habs had a chance to go back to Montréal with only a 2-1 deficit in the series.

But in the last minute of the game, Plekanec, of all player, failed to complete a simple icing and Johnson scored the GWG with 1 sec left

 

[frisco]

The Pittsburgh Penguins in their first round series vs. Philadelphia in 2012. The whole series. 25 GA in the four losses. 12 PPGA and three SHGA. Blew 3-0 in Game One, 3-1 lead in Game Two, both losses. Don't think I ever saw a team play that poor defensively in a playoff series. And they were completely undisciplined and the goaltending was horrendous.

My Best-Carey

 

[frisco]

I don't know what it was about 1993 and bad line changes in Game 7 overtimes but the same thing happened to the Pens. Basically their dynasty ended on a horrible line change and I still can't quite figure out who made the mistake here. The infamous David Volek goal was scored when the Pens had 4 players on the ice for an extended period of time. No joke. Watch it at 2:30:00. Here is how it unfolds. Dave Tippett and Ron Francis both go off on a line change and only Martin Straka comes on the ice. Just one player. Ulf Samuelsson crosses the blue line and tries to feed Mario who would have had a decent scoring chance had he gotten the puck. It goes off a skate and goes the other way, which would be fine if there was another player there. Straka not knowing another forward isn't there desperately tries to get back and Mario probably could have skated back faster but I doubt he catches Volek anyway. That 2-on-1 never happens with 5 Pens players on the ice. Who the heck was the Pens player that didn't come on the ice for the entire sequence?

The Ulfie Samuelsson giveaway at around 01:17 was almost comical that led to the Islanders first goal.

Also, Straka was practically mauled as he was interfered with trying to track Volek on the GWG.

One of the more fascinating games in NHL history.

My Best-Carey

 

[The Panther]

The Pittsburgh Penguins in their first round series vs. Philadelphia in 2012. The whole series. 25 GA in the four losses. 12 PPGA and three SHGA. Blew 3-0 in Game One, 3-1 lead in Game Two, both losses. Don't think I ever saw a team play that poor defensively in a playoff series. And they were completely undisciplined and the goaltending was horrendous.

It was entertaining as hell, but I never understood what was going on with the Pens in that series. The Penguins had 108 points that season and were the 4th-best defensive team in the Eastern Conference. They won 4 of their final 5 regular season games, allowing a modest four goals in the final two games. Over the last 21 games, they allowed 2.77 goals-against per game (and this included a random 8-4 loss to Ottawa).

Then, the playoffs. 30 goals against in six games, and in the middle of that is a 10-3 win. Just a bizarre series.

(As for worse defence, leave us not forget Chicago against Edmonton in the 1985 Conference Series -- 44 goals against in six games, with abysmal defence and goaltending. Al Secord scored a point-per-game in the series... and yet somehow went -11.)

 

[talitintti]

 

[Big Phil]

It was entertaining as hell, but I never understood what was going on with the Pens in that series. The Penguins had 108 points that season and were the 4th-best defensive team in the Eastern Conference. They won 4 of their final 5 regular season games, allowing a modest four goals in the final two games. Over the last 21 games, they allowed 2.77 goals-against per game (and this included a random 8-4 loss to Ottawa).

Then, the playoffs. 30 goals against in six games, and in the middle of that is a 10-3 win. Just a bizarre series.

(As for worse defence, leave us not forget Chicago against Edmonton in the 1985 Conference Series -- 44 goals against in six games, with abysmal defence and goaltending. Al Secord scored a point-per-game in the series... and yet somehow went -11.)

That last paragraph is hilarious.

Alright, in 2012 this was one of those weird times when Fleury let in a beach ball. Honestly, why not play Brent Johnson more often? Fleury was clearly rattled all series, I expected every shot to go in against him. This was during his mid career slump in the postseason. He was always good in the regular season, but after 2009 he had a string of bad playoff performances. 2012 was the worst of them. Obviously he's made up for it since, but in 2012 it was just horrendous.

Another thing was Crosby in that series. Malkin to an extent too but Crosby specifically. This was a pond hockey series. It was quite physical too, but it was wide open hockey. Those two should have won by the flick of their wrists. It was made for them. But Crosby got rattled that series. It looked like the fans got to him in Philly and there were battles against Giroux and Hartnell where he was just losing his head and not focusing on the game.

The Ulfie Samuelsson giveaway at around 01:17 was almost comical that led to the Islanders first goal.

Also, Straka was practically mauled as he was interfered with trying to track Volek on the GWG.

One of the more fascinating games in NHL history.

My Best-Carey

He probably doesn't get to Volek in time either way but maybe he can put more pressure on him where he doesn't get a clean shot. Either way, a poor line change basically cost a team a dynasty status, even though other things leading up to that factor in.

 

[Big Phil]

I think I have to apologize to an extent to Shawn Burr here for the gaffe in 1993 vs. the Leafs. I blamed him upthread a bit for the Borschevsky goal in overtime for making an ill-timed line change but it makes sense now. He is battling Clark along the boards and they get tangled up. He loses his stick. Now, he is close enough to be able to just pick it up but he probably sees that Detroit cleared the puck out (although not far enough) and he feels he is good enough for a line change. I always wondered why he just got up and left the ice, now I understand. Still a bad line change, but makes a bit of sense why he did it. Or maybe his stick broke?

 

[Big Phil]

I can't remember, has anyone mentioned Grant Ledyard tripping himself up as Todd Marchant was about to skate around him? 46:30 in this video. This is the overtime goal in Game 7 from 1997. If Ledyard doesn't trip I still think Marchant gets somewhat of a shot on net, but not one that clean. Ledyard was turned inside out by Marchant. One thing to notice here, the speedster Sydor is on the other side of the ice and once he notices Ledyard is going to be beat he closes the gap quite a bit with Marchant and was a split second away from getting there too.


Brian Holzinger just let Brett Hull stand there for the controversial Cup winner in 1999. This was a strange one. Holzinger sees Hull with the first shot, then lunges towards him but misses the puck entire and misses Hull entirely and ends up on his back as the puck goes in. I mean, take one of them at least!