GDT: Game 17: Sharks @ Coyotes - 6PM - FSAZ

[kihekah19*]

Watching our D allow opposing forwards to establish position in the crease is literally taking minutes off my life span. I'm not talking about D sneaking in behind them. I'm talking about our D at the top of the crease looking over their shoulder at the forward behind them, and then back to watching the puck while ignoring them. It happens all the time. It's like "I'll keep an eye on that guy, but stay between him and the puck." This has to be coaching or scheme related. And it results in quality chances against because we are boxed out of our own crease on rebounds. Where's Playfair? Either this is a novel new scheme to play lanes and the puck, or we have the dumbest defensemen in history. The way they nonchalantly decide it isn't a problem when they see it leads me to believe it's a scheme.

This has been going on for years, the WCF team did the same thing. I can remember my brother asking me why I wasn't coming unglued about it at the time. We see less battles in front of the net and some of it has to do with rule enforcement and some of it with the increased emphasis on shot blocking.

 

[Matias Maccete]

The D zone coverage is indeed quite fluid.

Rarely though, do I see support and therefore good positioning in the O zone either. Having said that, I am seeing slight improvement.

I think we'd see more support in the offensive zone if the rest of our forwards weren't having to change lines the minute we get into the offensive zone .

I actually think the big problem there is that many of our zone entries happen because of a great individual effort, while the other forwards just stand in the neutral zone. This is where imo they're afraid to be to aggressive and get caught out of position, so our puck carrier gets bottled up, has no one to pass to, and has to just fire it around the boards or turn it over. Then those two forwards are often still there to bottle up the counter attack. It results in us having little to no offensive zone time though. The entire third period last night was either a dump in for a line change or the other scenario I outlined. We get super passive when we have a lead.

 

[Matias Maccete]

Watching our D allow opposing forwards to establish position in the crease is literally taking minutes off my life span. I'm not talking about D sneaking in behind them. I'm talking about our D at the top of the crease looking over their shoulder at the forward behind them, and then back to watching the puck while ignoring them. It happens all the time. It's like "I'll keep an eye on that guy, but stay between him and the puck." This has to be coaching or scheme related. And it results in quality chances against because we are boxed out of our own crease on rebounds. Where's Playfair? Either this is a novel new scheme to play lanes and the puck, or we have the dumbest defensemen in history. The way they nonchalantly decide it isn't a problem when they see it leads me to believe it's a scheme. Two games back with two forwards in the paint, one of our d challenges a shooter moments after looking over his shoulder at the forwards. OEL also didn't the over the shoulder look. Puck enters crease and one d is way out of position, while OEL tries desperately to tie up his guy while boxed out. Goal.

This also makes me crazy. I love forwards pressuring the point and blocking shots especially when they stay standing. It makes dmen nervous about breakaways. I'd much prefer our Dmen focus on tying up sticks and establishing positioning instead of trying to clog up the middle of the ice with their bodies.