DeuceMN
Really?
Blaming someone else than Yeo in this point is pointless, as the system he coaches is very effective in creating certain statistical illusions. The offensive zone play focuses on posession so much that they systematically out-number the defensive players on boards.
- Because the out-numbered puck in the boards, MIN struggles to create built scoring chances from posession and rely too much on just delivering the puck to the net.
- Probably due the team's strenghts being wingers, the centers need to contribute to the out-numbering from the less risky direction, which usually is at the boards, about 10 ft from the blue line.
- With so many men on the puck from MIN, the defensive side naturally has more people between the puck and the net, making it easier to block the shots and dangerous passes.
- Usually the puck ends up for the center playing between the blue line and the scrum, who really does not have other choices than playing it to the net from bad angle or making an easy pass for the d-man, as other wingers are either in too risky positions or right next to you.
- The player delivering the puck from the bad angle or blue line rarely has a scoring chance by themselves, requiring the wingers to attack on the bounces or rebounds the puck may take and continue the posession game in the corners or whack the rebound to the net.
- As a team relying so much on posession, it becomes harder to be the team trailing, as with time running out of the clock the benefits of the pure posession began to decrease compared to more offensively orientated play.
- With strong posession creating penalties the PP should be the weapon number one. For MIN it surely isn't.
- This leaves the counter attacks as the only viable way to create scoring by skill, with usually the wingers breaking the puck trough from the boards.
And this is how MIN creates the huge amount of shots, which is used as a synonym amongs the stat worshippers not really watching the game. Also the system leaves only small room for a center to succeed statistically, as it is playing defensive and risk-minimizing game in the offensive zone. With better PP it could be more effective given the fact that Wild's winger depth is better than center depth.
TDLR: The posession Yeo's Wild creates in the offensive zone isn't really an offensive number, as it really is just defensive play in the offensive zone valuing puck posession more than offence, forcing the team to take bad angle shots in a fear of loosing the puck while taking riskier pass.
This is one of the most intelligent and well explained posts I have read on this message board. And you are spot on as to our system and how it has played out over the last few years.
