branmuffin17
Registered User
Hiya everyone,
Haven't seen a recent thread dedicated to this topic, so thought I'd start it. TL;DR, sorry.
Injured/Not Playing: As of 10/22, injured list of regular NHLers currently includes: Corey Perry, Andrej Kase, Jacob Silfverberg, Patrick Eaves. Getting into game-shape is Nick Ritchie. Questionable health is Ryan Getzlaf (based on his performance in the 2 games over this weekend).
Non-Proven players: In the lineup still includes: Ben Street, Sam Steel, Pontus Aberg, Joseph Blandisi, Max Comtois, Isac Lundestrom, Kiefer Sherwood.
With that out of the way, the big story for all of us is how badly the Ducks are being outplayed. They have been unable to stay in the offensive zone and provide pressure for longer than 15 seconds at a time. They are being outshot by a horrific margin in almost every single game, with most of their games coming against lower/middle-tier teams, and even Gibson is starting to get fed up.
The "new, up-tempo" Ducks don't look it at all. The concept here was supposed to be, not so much skating faster, but moving the puck more quickly, which means don't stop skating. It was also supposed to involve less dump & chase, and more carrying the puck in.
When I DO see a difference in style from them, it's usually in the form of less D to D passing. Instead of maintaining solid possession if they don't see any forwards available, they're trying to force passes forward. This is often with forwards that are more than 20 feet ahead of them (gap is large), and instead of those forwards moving laterally to more easily catch the puck and open up space, those forwards are moving forward, which makes them a harder target and makes them have to look backward, which can either be dangerous or prevent them from knowing what's going on in front of them (making for more giveaways).
So they're not moving as a group. Huge gap between F and D, and when the inevitable turnover happens, we often see 3 on 2s coming the other way in a hurry.
And then sometimes it's not even 3 on 2, but 2 on 1, because one of our D (last game it seemed to be Montour more than any of the others) would try to skate it up and lose it.
All of our players are looking pretty bad, not just the rookies. At least with Lundestrom and Steel, we're seeing some good things here and there. (Also, I agree with those of you that said to take Fowler off the 1st PP and put Steel in there) Sustr definitely needs to go...Schenn is more reliable. Sherwood just needs to be used properly in a 4th line energy role, not with goal scorers. It's good that Terry's been sent down, and Aberg also needs to be sent down.
But in the end, it looks like it comes down to systems. I'm not on a witch hunt, but an up-tempo style just isn't something Carlyle is an expert on, and being forced to attempt this strategy is exposing the weaknesses in his plan (if the players are actually executing like he's trying to get them to do). Shot differential can be attributed to a depleted roster to some degree, but at this extent, it's so large and consistent every game that it's not an anomaly. We're last place in the league by far with regard to possession metrics, and things need to change.
Haven't seen a recent thread dedicated to this topic, so thought I'd start it. TL;DR, sorry.
Injured/Not Playing: As of 10/22, injured list of regular NHLers currently includes: Corey Perry, Andrej Kase, Jacob Silfverberg, Patrick Eaves. Getting into game-shape is Nick Ritchie. Questionable health is Ryan Getzlaf (based on his performance in the 2 games over this weekend).
Non-Proven players: In the lineup still includes: Ben Street, Sam Steel, Pontus Aberg, Joseph Blandisi, Max Comtois, Isac Lundestrom, Kiefer Sherwood.
With that out of the way, the big story for all of us is how badly the Ducks are being outplayed. They have been unable to stay in the offensive zone and provide pressure for longer than 15 seconds at a time. They are being outshot by a horrific margin in almost every single game, with most of their games coming against lower/middle-tier teams, and even Gibson is starting to get fed up.
The "new, up-tempo" Ducks don't look it at all. The concept here was supposed to be, not so much skating faster, but moving the puck more quickly, which means don't stop skating. It was also supposed to involve less dump & chase, and more carrying the puck in.
When I DO see a difference in style from them, it's usually in the form of less D to D passing. Instead of maintaining solid possession if they don't see any forwards available, they're trying to force passes forward. This is often with forwards that are more than 20 feet ahead of them (gap is large), and instead of those forwards moving laterally to more easily catch the puck and open up space, those forwards are moving forward, which makes them a harder target and makes them have to look backward, which can either be dangerous or prevent them from knowing what's going on in front of them (making for more giveaways).
So they're not moving as a group. Huge gap between F and D, and when the inevitable turnover happens, we often see 3 on 2s coming the other way in a hurry.
And then sometimes it's not even 3 on 2, but 2 on 1, because one of our D (last game it seemed to be Montour more than any of the others) would try to skate it up and lose it.
All of our players are looking pretty bad, not just the rookies. At least with Lundestrom and Steel, we're seeing some good things here and there. (Also, I agree with those of you that said to take Fowler off the 1st PP and put Steel in there) Sustr definitely needs to go...Schenn is more reliable. Sherwood just needs to be used properly in a 4th line energy role, not with goal scorers. It's good that Terry's been sent down, and Aberg also needs to be sent down.
But in the end, it looks like it comes down to systems. I'm not on a witch hunt, but an up-tempo style just isn't something Carlyle is an expert on, and being forced to attempt this strategy is exposing the weaknesses in his plan (if the players are actually executing like he's trying to get them to do). Shot differential can be attributed to a depleted roster to some degree, but at this extent, it's so large and consistent every game that it's not an anomaly. We're last place in the league by far with regard to possession metrics, and things need to change.
