Captain Awesome
Registered User
Yeah I agree with you about the reasoning, and it worked out because Faksa won the faceoff cleanly enough that it wasn't disputed. I disagree with the coaching philosophy because there's maybe a 55% chance Faksa wins that faceoff, or something close enough to that, and there's maaaaybe half that probability that he wins it cleanly. I think that overall, that scenario bites him in the ass something like 65% of the time, because the Toronto trio is going to get that puck back if he doesn't win the faceoff cleanly.
It's shortsighted because Hintz is maybe 5% worse at faceoffs, but significantly better at keeping up with someone like Matthews. Don't get me started on Glendening, there's just no situation where he should be on the same ice as Auston Matthews unless you're deliberately tanking. He's probably there in case Faksa gets booted out of the faceoff and Bowness needs another strong faceoff guy.
It's worrying tactically because Bowness is acting like Faksa and Glendening at 3v3 is the same as at 5v5, and they're not, they wouldn't be in the NHL at 3v3 (arguable they're even worth a slot at 5v5 at this point). Also that he has not considered how badly outmatched they are if they lose the faceoff. Anyway, I think we've beat this thing pretty dead, so I'll just leave it at that.
