That's not true about Torts. At first he had his defense pinch in at all times and Staal was god awful at it, and still is. Then when Torts realized the team lacked talent he stopped the safe is death approach and got real conservative
He took over in what March and this didn't even last to the PO series against Washington. We did this for like a Month or what? He was here for four years. You are reffering to one month of 48..
And it was really really dumb to start with, you pinch in when (i) you get an opening and (ii) you have support. We tried to force it by pinching in all the time, it was very odd. We lacked talent to do it? Have you ever seen a team pinch in like that in the NHL on a regular basis? Yeah, maybe the absolute most high flying dynamic offenses when you got like a Forsberg or Gretzky feeding the Ds and they pwn the opposition 5 on 5...
Torts has just completely failed to realize what the game after the lockout is about. He took Tampa to the last overall spot in the entire league. Here in NY we lived on shotblocking and Hank all the time, while constantly being completely hammered by the teams we played against. Look what he did in Vancouver to the Sedins and Edler and co., extremely poor numbers for them. Why is that?
The answer is simple, he didn't know how to coach a transition game in the NHL. He has his Ds send the puck up ice in straight lines ASAP, and you get the quality on those passes that you deserve.
Niklas Lidström talked about
Erik Karlsson. The first and only thing he focused on was that it shouldn't be underrated just how big of an impact it has had on Karlsson's game that Ottawa from the get go just have let him hit the ice and play his style. Lidström said that the diffrence in Karlsson's development could have been monumental had he ended up playing for "one of those teams that just throw the puck away", then the commentator said something like "Like for Tortorella?" and Lidström laughed and nodded.
And its not about talent. Go back and watch old tapes of New Jersey Devils. Look at how smart guys like Daneyko and Colin White moves the puck. Simple short passes. Look at like Oduya and Hjalmarsson in Chicago. Look at Alex Edler in Vancouver when he played for AV. Staal should have been on a higher level than those guys, but he is not.
It has a tremendous effect on a young Ds game that he is allowed to hit the ice and move the puck and make plays with it, not just send it away. To see further proof of it, go back to like 2002-2003, who are the highest scoring Ds in the game? Like mediocre older players, but who got a chance to grow up "not" playing against the trap (Scott Neidermayer also counts into this group because he didn't grow up playing for a team that had adjustted to playing -- against -- the trap). Who is the best offensive D that broke into the league from like 96' to 02'? Correct, there is barely a single example of a good offensive D that broke into the leauge during that age. Brian Campbell and Dan Boyle.. And we played the same style that is designed to beat the trap for 4 years. For Staal's 2-5th year in the league. Of course it has hurt his offensive game.