Defense / Goals Against

[majormajor]

View attachment 539692

This year's team set records for most goals allowed in a season (just shy of 300), goals allowed per game, and shots on goal allowed per game. Depending on which fancy tracker site you prefer, the team also led the league in expected goals allowed at 5v5 (~190-200).

Blue Jackets Sunday Gathering: A Kirill Marchenko signing is imminent, and more

Plus a look at Brad Larsen's first year as Blue Jackets head coach, Jack Roslovic's improvement and more.

theathletic.com

View attachment 539694

I'm sorry, what? McCarthy was a last-minute, emergency hire after Lefebvre wouldn't get vaccinated. The team put together, by virtually every metric, its worst defensive season in franchise history. And they want to bring back the guy who coached the defense??

You could have predicted that it was going to be terrible season defensively before McCarthy was ever hired for the job. They made it abundantly clear with every move they made for this year. It looked like it was going to be a fun rebuilding year where we let the kids make mistakes, and that is what it was.

And you also could have predicted that us fans on the boards would again think we know how the assistant coaches have performed. We've never worked with them, we know little about what they do on a day to day level, we're not qualified to opine on their job performance.

Post automatically merged: May 3, 2022

Defense is not something we need to make over the roster to get, it's something that has to be coached.

Hitch would have been early to the grave if he had to coach Boqvist and Bean.

 

[JacketsDavid]

Hitch would have been early to the grave if he had to coach Boqvist and Bean.

More than likely he (Hitch) would have sat them in the press box (or played them very limited minutes). Again Coach's have expectations for their players.
This year I don't think there were many/any expectations for this team defensively. Likely that was by design (just to open things up) and hopefully that expectation changes and if it doesn't then I'm sure we will be looking for a new coach next year.

 

[Xoggz22]

This discussion reminds me of Jared Bednar's first year in Colorado. He was ready to be run out of town on a rail that team was so bad. And here we are...

I'm not jumping on the dump McCarthy bandwagon. So many factors in this portion of the story that I'm not willing/ready to pin this on him. For one, it takes 5 to defend in the game, not two. You had two guys on defense with over 100 NHL games under their belt (Gavrikov had 124 total). This team was young, new system, last minute coaching change... that's a lot to deal with. They weren't good, don't misunderstand me, but I'm not ready to throw the baby out with the bathwater on this one. Not yet anyway

 

[Double-Shift Lasse]

I asked about a month ago about the defense, of it was personnel or scheme or both. Of course, most felt it was at least some of both.

While the personnel issues have been well-documented, I’d be interested in hearing folks’ takes on whether the style/scheme could/should change and if that’s something that will have to be set up or if it already exists and Lars has been purposefully lax this season.

 

[MoeBartoli]

Based on a few of the prior comments and my own uncertainty, I’ll pose this question to those who paid more technical attention and have a better recall than me of prior years. In terms of defensive scheme, what changes were installed this year compared to the prior couple of years. I’m referring only to scheme - concepts and tactics - not personnel. Thoughts?

 

[NotWendell]

Or maybe sucking on defense was part of the plan to improve our draft position. They knew it was a problem at the trade deadline and before. Yet they did nothing to fix it via trade.

 

[CBJx614]

Or maybe sucking on defense was part of the plan to improve our draft position. They knew it was a problem at the trade deadline and before. Yet they did nothing to fix it via trade.

tanking without tanking! We already knew we were basically out of the playoffs IIRC, at that point unless a long term option comes available no real point to make a move........especially if you think you might have an answer in the draft or as an UDFA

 

[majormajor]

Based on a few of the prior comments and my own uncertainty, I’ll pose this question to those who paid more technical attention and have a better recall than me of prior years. In terms of defensive scheme, what changes were installed this year compared to the prior couple of years. I’m referring only to scheme - concepts and tactics - not personnel. Thoughts?

I don't know anything beyond what we discussed last time. We switched from being more on the "zone defense" side of things to the "man-on-man-defense" side. It might have been an extreme change but I don't know for sure.

 

[cslebn]

I don't know anything beyond what we discussed last time. We switched from being more on the "zone defense" side of things to the "man-on-man-defense" side. It might have been an extreme change but I don't know for sure.

It's not pure man on man though ala Colorado.

It's difficult to tell what the system was supposed to be in many games because there were so many breakdowns in systemic play. The best they did all season was when they had Berube come up that first time. But it was clear they were playing 5 back, defense first, everyone push everything to the outside Torts/Trotz D during that.

 

[Monstershockey]

It's not pure man on man though ala Colorado.

It's difficult to tell what the system was supposed to be in many games because there were so many breakdowns in systemic play. The best they did all season was when they had Berube come up that first time. But it was clear they were playing 5 back, defense first, everyone push everything to the outside Torts/Trotz D during that.

The defense was just as bad when Berube came up the first time, he just played out of his mind. He faced 170 shots in 4 games. There is no way he would have kept that up behind that kind of defense. It showed his last couple starts.

 

[DarkandStormy]

This year's team has (re) set the single season franchise record for most goals allowed in a season -> 302 and counting.

Six games to go, but this year's team is likely to join this year's Anaheim team as the only clubs in the salary cap era to allow more than 317 goals in a season.

 

[Viqsi]

This year's team has (re) set the single season franchise record for most goals allowed in a season -> 302 and counting.

Six games to go, but this year's team is likely to join this year's Anaheim team as the only clubs in the salary cap era to allow more than 317 goals in a season.

bUt ThEy'Re NoT tAnKiNg CoRrEcTlY

 

[CBJWerenski8]

bUt ThEy'Re NoT tAnKiNg CoRrEcTlY

A team that has never tanked correctly has surpassed their previous tanking efforts and are still not tanking correctly. Impressive

Let’s do goals for and PP next.

 

[Viqsi]

A team that has never tanked correctly has surpassed their previous tanking efforts and are still not tanking correctly. Impressive

...which kind of suggests that the whole idea of "tanking correctly" is absurd nonsense, but G-d forbid folks pick up on that lesson.

 

[Youngguns80]

Don’t even start me on this thread. This thread is the genesis of why i am pissed about this Team. Jarmo held a press conference talking about fixing the GA at the end of last season, since we ended up breaking a record. What does he do run it back with same personnel, coaching and signed Gubranson!!! Also didn’t address working it out with Gavy before trading him in a f***ked up way. Last we are breaking the record again this year. I don’t want to hear anything about injuries.

That told me right there any optimism I had for Jarmo dissipated right there. I feel JD’s comments as of late is forcing Jarmo’s hand to deal with Defense (including goaltending) the center position and Coaches. This should have been done last summer. Do we end up in the same place possibly, but then you could have said injuries was the only culprit for this debacle of a season. You can’t say this on any level about this season.

We had better personnel in the first 10 games and looked horrible (effort wise) and looked better effort wise with an AHL lineup over the past 7-10 games. Whose fault is that? Poor roster construction, coaching hires, rushing & evaluating of prospects, questionable contract signings, extensions, and negotiations? Lets also not forget setting wrong expectations like use the cap as a weapon, this is a retool, we are going to fix our defense in the offseason and last but not least spending up to cap with questionable talent. Sounds to me like Jarmo’s job description.

 

[thebus88]

This year's team has (re) set the single season franchise record for most goals allowed in a season -> 302 and counting.

Six games to go, but this year's team is likely to join this year's Anaheim team as the only clubs in the salary cap era to allow more than 317 goals in a season.

This is the way the league and game is moving towards, and the fact that offense/goals is what wins games. Goals means EXCITEMENT and WINS!! Fact.

There is nothing enjoyable in consistently winning 3-2 games and literally having confidence against any team on any night. 3-2 wins are the definition of mediocrity.

At some point you have to come to terms with how pointless and monotonous it is to just make it to the 1st round of the playoffs over and over again, within a newly implemented playoff system that many times was not beneficial to the CBJ team on the whole. If you look at all the Stanley Cup winning teams, they have ELITE offensive players who put up many points, so that is obviously the recipe for succes.


Or so I’ve been told.


All the opposing fans I hear at Nationwide Arena whenever I watch sure seem to be having GREAT times at the games, that’s for sure. I was always kinda confused by the vast majority of CBJ fandom wanting to get rid of Torts and the entire philosophy/mindset that brought the team any actual success, but, now I think I get it.

You Ohioans are seemingly committed to being very generous hosts I take it. You get the goals and the chili, Laine gets his points, and the other teams/fans get the wins. Win-win-win situation.

 

[thebus88]

Oh, and Korpisalo >> Merzlikins.

What a disaster that is.

Also, any “hate” that I’ve had for Werenski in the past has been about his “overall” game. Essentially his defensive ability and that I would like his intensity (consistently) ramped up for playing the role he does, while now without having a guy like Jones to minimize his minutes/workload, might not be possible at this point.

Werenski isn’t a bad player defensively, as Gavrikov wasn’t bad defensively, but, having them looked at, given the roles, or actually being your top defensive players, is NOT a good thing. With these guys out for whatever reason and you have Peeke and Gudbranson as the next options for playing big minutes/roles, the entire ISSUE is magnified.

I like Werenski and Bean. I think 1 guy is a top pair D man (lower end #1) and Bean is a #3-4.

I think Gudbranson, Boqvist, and Blankenburg can have roles moving forward, and could look “capable” next to Bean at different times on a 2nd pairing, although would prefer them on the 3rd pair, with Blankenburg getting more consistent 5 on 5 play, with Gudbranson getting heavy defensive/PK time and Boqvist getting offensive/PP time.

Where will Jiricek be next year?? I think slotting him with Bean (possibly as a rotation w the other mentioned guys) on that 2nd pairing is the most optimistic we should be.

Bottom line is that we need to find a way to add a LEGITIMATE “top pairing” d man, and another “2nd pairing quality” guy who can skate and play on the PK consistently.

Torts was right about Peeke all along.