Listening to a Marek vs Wyshynski podcast from Thursday and they're saying something that's interesting. Marek was saying that the Avs are playing a man to man defence and just outworking guys. When they stop outworking, they're gonna struggle (like the third period tonight) and when more teams figure out that it's man to man then they're gonna set up picks and switch forward movement making it tougher so Roy will have to adapt. I wonder how true this ends up being.
I don't think it will be as tough as you might think. First of all, teams should know they're playing that style defensively even though the season's young. All teams go over video, and it's also why there has been so many scouts at Avs games, to see how they're playing with the new coach.
Also, setting picks is something teams should be doing anyway. And from hearing Roy and others talk, they're playing a man to man system, but they're stressing supporting each other, so when one guy has to skate too far out of position, or if there happens to be a pick somehwere, there should be a second guy ready to take over, and they can switch. This is why we're seeing communication among the five players on the ice to a level we've never seen, even in the Avs glory years.
Despite the high shot totals in previous games, this team is working extremely well as a five man unit. The're all on the same page and in the right position, and working hard for nearly all the shifts they take. That's what's given them success so far this year. It's their hard work and team play defensively, not offensively, that's given them success so far.
Roy in training camp and in their first game created such a culture of "team play" and "we're all in it together" that it transcended the usual nature of that cliche, and everyone is buying in. Everyone's working for each other, and that's not something that we've seen regularly for a long time.
It's actually very very impressive what he's done for this team as a coach. He's really the real deal behind the bench.