News Article: Five Things Learned About These Cats

[BW]

There's some good, some bad to go over after five games in the books. A lot more than this to discuss, but here are five that just seem to jump out.

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[Android 16]

Nice write up. I agree with pretty much everything, but I would like to mention something about Gallant's system that he's trying to get everyone to buy into. The whole, straight lines, pucks to the net, bodies in front. It doesn't work when there's not one guy in your top six who can skate fast. I'd argue that Bergenheim might be the fastest guy, but on playoff teams' top sixes, he's a probably considered a slower guy. Point is, we lack speed. Gallant's system needs speed to have effective results. The result now is five goals in five games.

 

[RogerRoger]

Nice write up. I agree with pretty much everything, but I would like to mention something about Gallant's system that he's trying to get everyone to buy into. The whole, straight lines, pucks to the net, bodies in front. It doesn't work when there's not one guy in your top six who can skate fast. I'd argue that Bergenheim might be the fastest guy, but on playoff teams' top sixes, he's a probably considered a slower guy. Point is, we lack speed. Gallant's system needs speed to have effective results. The result now is five goals in five games.

You don't need to be very fast to win the dump and chase race. All you need is to time the dump with a second player crossing the line with speed and driving to get back the puck. It was evident against the Caps on the power plays. Everyone was just standing still at the blue line when the player dumped the puck and the team couldn't get back to it in time. On one occasion a player timed his zone entry with the dump and recovered the puck.

 

[Erased]

You don't need to be very fast to win the dump and chase race. All you need is to time the dump with a second player crossing the line with speed and driving to get back the puck. It was evident against the Caps on the power plays. Everyone was just standing still at the blue line when the player dumped the puck and the team couldn't get back to it in time. On one occasion a player timed his zone entry with the dump and recovered the puck.

One thing I noticed during the Washington game is that they did use the Finnish breakout a couple of times on the powerplay - which seeing as we have Jussi who is well known for using it as well as 2 other guys who have played on the Finnish National team I'm actually kind of surprised it took this long for us to use it and I expect we'll see a lot more of it as the season goes on.

 

[Olax]

Great work as usual Bill!

I agree on all five points. Would be pretty interesting to know why Pirri hasn't been getting ice time in these first few games. Is Gallant just trying to give our more expensive players the chance to prove their worth or is there something personaIl between Pirri and Gallant? Though if our top six plays the way they have been playing production-wise I don't think Gallant has much other chance than put Pirri in more often.

-L-

 

[Android 16]

You don't need to be very fast to win the dump and chase race. All you need is to time the dump with a second player crossing the line with speed and driving to get back the puck. It was evident against the Caps on the power plays. Everyone was just standing still at the blue line when the player dumped the puck and the team couldn't get back to it in time. On one occasion a player timed his zone entry with the dump and recovered the puck.

Ya, who's that second guy with speed on the Panthers, cause I never see him in the lineup..

 

[RogerRoger]

Ya, who's that second guy with speed on the Panthers, cause I never see him in the lineup..

Bjugstad was fast enough to get the dump and chase I'm talking about, you might have heard of him.

 

[Dread Clawz]

It's not just speed. If you're going to play a system like this, you need power forwards who can benefit from this type of hockey. The Panthers have no power forwards. It's no wonder we are losing so many puck battles down low and in the corners. Most of our forwards just don't like mucking away like that. I'd expect Tallon to change up the personnel a bit going forward, be it through trades, free agency, and the draft. That is if Gallant and Tallon stick around.

Also wrt Pirri, he's probably been scratched because of exactly what we saw in the Washington game, he doesn't stick exactly to Gallant's gameplan. Even after the game Gallant acknowledged that he had a few really good scoring chances, but he still didn't sound excited about him. My fear is that this becomes a situation between the two.

 

[adam graves]

Good honest writing, post more here please.

 

[BW]

Thanks for the kind words, folks. Will try to post here more often. Other sports I cover for newspaper (that one involving a pigskin primarily) are getting in the way a bit.

You can follow my blog at billwhitehead.wordpress.com and get it sent to you right away.

Thanks for reading. You guys