Okay, so there's lots of talk that this team needs an injection of speed. PC himself intimated as much after last PO's loss to MTL.
Obviously speed is good, but I have an honest question here, and being that hockey systems and strategy is not my forte, pardon me if this is naive - and please enlighten me if I'm just being dumb, but here it is:
If the overall system of this team on offence is to move up the ice as a 5-man unit (Brickley and others are often pointing this out), does it really help that much to have 1 or 2 guys that are speedsters? Doesn't that potentially throw the 5-man unit thing a bit out of whack?
I mean, obviously speedy players are great in situations like breakaways and long stretch passes, and for guys being able to quickly break in behind defenders etc. And forechecking. Guys like Paille and Marchand have shown their wheels in such cases.
But if the basic strategy is a 5-man unit moving up the ice together, what's the point of having one speedster? Isn't that kind of like having one premium F1 tire on your car and the rest are all-seasons?
Or is the answer not so much speed (good though it is) as quickness - i.e., foot speed, getting to pucks first, etc. Seems to me that was an area where the habs were consistently beating us last playoffs.
Thoughts?
Obviously speed is good, but I have an honest question here, and being that hockey systems and strategy is not my forte, pardon me if this is naive - and please enlighten me if I'm just being dumb, but here it is:
If the overall system of this team on offence is to move up the ice as a 5-man unit (Brickley and others are often pointing this out), does it really help that much to have 1 or 2 guys that are speedsters? Doesn't that potentially throw the 5-man unit thing a bit out of whack?
I mean, obviously speedy players are great in situations like breakaways and long stretch passes, and for guys being able to quickly break in behind defenders etc. And forechecking. Guys like Paille and Marchand have shown their wheels in such cases.
But if the basic strategy is a 5-man unit moving up the ice together, what's the point of having one speedster? Isn't that kind of like having one premium F1 tire on your car and the rest are all-seasons?
Or is the answer not so much speed (good though it is) as quickness - i.e., foot speed, getting to pucks first, etc. Seems to me that was an area where the habs were consistently beating us last playoffs.
Thoughts?
