GDT: Blues @ Sharks 12/20/14

[Multimoodia]

What would you say the weakness is against heavy/forechecking teams? The idea of having your defensemen give the blueline, close your gaps at the circles or hashmarks, and have backcheckers pressure the high areas should give you a few seconds advantage over the dump and chases that those types of teams tend to prefer. The weakness against that would seem to be if your defense or goalie fumbles the puck behind the net, not with the system.

Heavier teams are difficult to handle anyway, but in this case it allows them to actually gain the zone and then dump the puck. This gives less time for the defense to react and forces them to either absorb punishment or often force a play that is less than optimal. Additionally a heavier team is going to have a lot more success at simply driving the net in particular if the defensemen are less physical/smaller and/or backside pressure is found a bit wanting.