BUX7PHX
Registered User
- Jul 7, 2011
- 5,581
- 1,350
The D has been fairly good, but as Jakey said, it looks worse b/c we aren't scoring. Also, it looks bad b/c 50% of the goals that have been scored were total brain farts that happened 2-4 seconds before a shot even occurred:
The second and third goals - Goligoski couldn't really track the puck well between his skates, but I think that he could have used his body to shield from Radulov better. Perlini just made a ghastly coverage play on the third goal. Everything else has been fairly mundane. Watch the goals that we missed on - long breakaway to Perlini where he just didn't elevate the puck and Grabner had a glorious chance that found Bishop's glove.
Our transition game has been fairly strong and we have been consistently getting to the puck first (hence, our strong possession numbers). Granted, it is only 5 games, but you would need to go back to when Tippett was coach to see a GAA that strong. The one thing that our D need to do is provide better offense. Nearly every single year (even unsuccessful years), the D usually had a top 5 or top 10 number of goals/points scored by defensemen, IIRC. Our D can't get shots through when we have some traffic in front and that alone could add about 4-8 shots where the goalie doesn't have a clear line to see the puck. We just have to get it past the first man to challenge the shot, b/c through 5 games, I have seen more blocked shot attempts by our D than I have probably seen in a quarter of the season in either our up or down years.
The second and third goals - Goligoski couldn't really track the puck well between his skates, but I think that he could have used his body to shield from Radulov better. Perlini just made a ghastly coverage play on the third goal. Everything else has been fairly mundane. Watch the goals that we missed on - long breakaway to Perlini where he just didn't elevate the puck and Grabner had a glorious chance that found Bishop's glove.
Our transition game has been fairly strong and we have been consistently getting to the puck first (hence, our strong possession numbers). Granted, it is only 5 games, but you would need to go back to when Tippett was coach to see a GAA that strong. The one thing that our D need to do is provide better offense. Nearly every single year (even unsuccessful years), the D usually had a top 5 or top 10 number of goals/points scored by defensemen, IIRC. Our D can't get shots through when we have some traffic in front and that alone could add about 4-8 shots where the goalie doesn't have a clear line to see the puck. We just have to get it past the first man to challenge the shot, b/c through 5 games, I have seen more blocked shot attempts by our D than I have probably seen in a quarter of the season in either our up or down years.
