OT: Team Defence Discussion - 2022/23

[Senovision]

We need to get a defenceman or two that can play but are mean and nasty that other teams fear playing against. I have heard Kleven is a hard hitter but he is not playing for us yet. We needed to acquire one in the offseason. We make it way too easy for the opposition to stand around our net. There is no one on defence that creates fear in the opposition. We get out- physicalled every game. Strike first, strike hard, show no mercy. ( Cobra Kai).

 

[Alex1234]

We need to get a defenceman or two that can play but are mean and nasty that other teams fear playing against. I have heard Kleven is a hard hitter but he is not playing for us yet. We needed to acquire one in the offseason. We make it way too easy for the opposition to stand around our net. There is no one on defence that creates fear in the opposition. We get out- physicalled every game. Strike first, strike hard, show no mercy. ( Cobra Kai).

Go for Mayfield at The TDL

 

[Union2017]

Offer a contract to Methot. Get him to coach our D. See if that works. It can’t be much worse than this, I would probably produce the same results as our D coach

 

[Yak]

I am not worried about our forwards, we have depth to figure it out!

Our defense, we have issues here. Holden is showing his age, Hamonic is what he is, Zaitsev should not be on this team. Branny needs a solid D-Man partner to compensate for his shortfalls.

JC is not a option they think he is worth Makar type of trade value. We need to identify physical defensemen that can be a shutdown top 4. They don't grow on tree's as PD says.

I would like a Mayfield, Carson Soucy ect...style of player, stay at home D-Man who is willing to battle for every inch in his own zone. Win the battles, not so much hits or fights!

We have known the defense has been the weakest link on this team but at some point I am going to point my fingers at the coaching staff because they are not implementing the correct system for the personal we have to work with.

DJ or Jacks love for Zaitsev is perfect example of what I am talking about.

 

[Xspyrit]

Much worse D-squads on paper have done better defensively in this league before. The problem is deeper than the personnel.

But that's our rebuild, that's what we're doing and that's where we'll sink or swim

 

[JackieDaytona]

Yep by no means do we have an excellent d corps. But looking around the league there are plenty of teams doing a lot more with similar quality lineups on d. I question deployment decisions and structure/ coaching.

 

[Bileur]

Much worse D-squads on paper have done better defensively in this league before. The problem is deeper than the personnel.

But that's our rebuild, that's what we're doing and that's where we'll sink or swim

This D is definitely more talented than the D the 2017 penguins iced in the playoffs.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

Where are the teams with worse D who are doing better? Our D is awful, we have two legit top 4 dmen and one amazing rookie.

 

[Xspyrit]

This D is definitely more talented than the D the 2017 penguins iced in the playoffs.

Well 5-6 years ago... I had to look it up lol (that's the year Letang was injured)

By TOI/GP :

Dumoulin
Hainsey
Maata
Schultz
Daley
Cole
Streit

It's not spectacular but a good coaching staff can work with that (Jacques Martin IIRC)

Where are the teams with worse D who are doing better? Our D is awful, we have two legit top 4 dmen and one amazing rookie.

I'm sure there would be some coaching staffs able to do well with Chabot, Sanderson, Zub, Brannstrom and Holden.

Sure Hamonic and Zaitsev are not very good anymore but you have 5 decent to great D-men to work with.

Look at the Habs and how bad they were supposed to be. It's still early in the season but they have a 3.00 GA/GP while we have 3.38 GA/GP. This is the 2nd year of their rebuild, this is our 6th.

 

[GCK]

Well 5-6 years ago... I had to look it up lol (that's the year Letang was injured)

By TOI/GP :

Dumoulin
Hainsey
Maata
Schultz
Daley
Cole
Streit

It's not spectacular but a good coaching staff can work with that (Jacques Martin IIRC)



I'm sure there would be some coaching staffs able to do well with Chabot, Sanderson, Zub, Brannstrom and Holden.

Sure Hamonic and Zaitsev are not very good anymore but you have 5 decent to great D-men to work with.

Look at the Habs and how bad they were supposed to be. It's still early in the season but they have a 3.00 GA/GP while we have 3.38 GA/GP. This is the 2nd year of their rebuild, this is our 6th.

Hamonic is superior to Holden. Holden has struggled to start the season.

 

[Alex1234]

Chabot needs to be A LOT better

 

[Micklebot]

Hamonic is superior to Holden. Holden has struggled to start the season.

We've been playing Holden on his off side and he's either been over slotted on the top pair or asked to be a steadying influence for a guy with some deficiencies in his game, it's a tough ask at this point, he's been up and down imo.

I'd like to see if Sanderson can handle his off side, his skill set lends itself well to it, but he's been caught by surprise a couple times on the rush so he might need a bit more time to adapt to NHL level opposition.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

Losing Zub hurts

Brannstrom Holden was doing fine as the 3rd pair
Sanderson is blossoming with Hamonic .. Hamonic has been ok

Losing Zub exposes the depth. Forces Zaitsev in with Brannstrom which results in a downgrade in performance of that pair. Moving Holden with Chabot downgrades that pair .. the slotting gets messed up; Putting Zaitsev with Chabot hurts that pair as well.
Holden playing his offside out of necessity .

I'd be tempted to go
Chabot Sanderson
Brannstrom Holden
Heatherington Hamonic

 

[senswon]

Not sure why we brought zaitsev into the lineup when we were winning. Think id rather see Dylan Heatherington

 

[Union2017]

Not sure why we brought zaitsev into the lineup when we were winning. Think id rather see Dylan Heatherington

At this point I would rather see one of the zamboni drivers than #22.

 

[Alex1234]

JBD was drafted 4 years ago
Might be time to...

 

[Union2017]

JBD was drafted 4 years ago
Might be time to...

Yes, try him out, I agree.

Also, how can I ever say no to your avatar. Impossible....

 

[JackieDaytona]

Not sure why we brought zaitsev into the lineup when we were winning. Think id rather see Dylan Heatherington

Me too. Here’s a question to ponder. If heatherington was dressed last game instead of zaitsev, would DJ have played him almost 20 minutes/2nd most on the blueline? I would imagine not. Don’t understand all the apologists and mental gymnastics downplaying how zaitsev goes from scratch to #2 d time ahead of every other dman on the chart clearly ahead of him.

Maybe zaitsev didn’t lose the game for us but he sure as f*** didn’t win it either, and it shows atrocious ongoing pattern of decisions by coaching staff imo. Dorion needs to drop him in AHL if dj can’t exert the self control not to play him in the most minimal fashion possible while we ride out this Zub injury.

 

[GCK]

Me too. Here’s a question to ponder. If heatherington was dressed last game instead of zaitsev, would DJ have played him almost 20 minutes/2nd most on the blueline? I would imagine not. Don’t understand all the apologists and mental gymnastics downplaying how zaitsev goes from scratch to #2 d time ahead of every other dman on the chart clearly ahead of him.

Maybe zaitsev didn’t lose the game for us but he sure as f*** didn’t win it either, and it shows atrocious ongoing pattern of decisions by coaching staff imo. Dorion needs to drop him in AHL if dj can’t exert the self control not to play him in the most minimal fashion possible while we ride out this Zub injury.

Stupid post. DJ has sat Zaitsev for all but 1 game when he had his preferred 6 available.

Zaitsev’s minutes

Toronto game
10:49 EV 1:23 SH for 12:12 total. 5 minutes less than any other D.

Minnesota game
9:10 EV 3:10 SH for 12:20 total. 3 minutes less than any other D.

Florida game
14:49 EV 4:36 SH for 19:25 total.

Last game was a shitshow and an outlier in his deployment because they were searching for a pair that didn’t suck.

It’s clear through the first 8 games that DJ knows exactly what Zaitsev is and my personal opinion is that DJ would be dressing JBD instead of Zaitsev if he was up with Ottawa.

The posters who keep up with the DJ loves Zaitsev are either being purposefully obtuse or just making up reasons to rip on the coach.

 

[Micklebot]

Me too. Here’s a question to ponder. If heatherington was dressed last game instead of zaitsev, would DJ have played him almost 20 minutes/2nd most on the blueline? I would imagine not. Don’t understand all the apologists and mental gymnastics downplaying how zaitsev goes from scratch to #2 d time ahead of every other dman on the chart clearly ahead of him.

Maybe zaitsev didn’t lose the game for us but he sure as f*** didn’t win it either, and it shows atrocious ongoing pattern of decisions by coaching staff imo. Dorion needs to drop him in AHL if dj can’t exert the self control not to play him in the most minimal fashion possible while we ride out this Zub injury.

Heatherington is up solely in case of another injury, had we wanted to bring up somebody to fill in for Zub, we'd have called up JBD, Guinette or Thomson, instead we called up a LHD.

 

[JackieDaytona]

Stupid post. DJ has sat Zaitsev for all but 1 game when he had his preferred 6 available.

Zaitsev’s minutes

Toronto game
10:49 EV 1:23 SH for 12:12 total. 5 minutes less than any other D.

Minnesota game
9:10 EV 3:10 SH for 12:20 total. 3 minutes less than any other D.

Florida game
14:49 EV 4:36 SH for 19:25 total.

Last game was a shitshow and an outlier in his deployment because they were searching for a pair that didn’t suck.

It’s clear through the first 8 games that DJ knows exactly what Zaitsev is and my personal opinion is that DJ would be dressing JBD instead of Zaitsev if he was up with Ottawa.

The posters who keep up with the DJ loves Zaitsev are either being purposefully obtuse or just making up reasons to rip on the coach.

There are other options that dj avoids over playing zaitsev the 2nd most in a game. I’m not convinced that any decision that results in zaitsev playing more than the other options is a good one. It’s that simple. If DJ really ranks Zaitsev below other options that are clearly superior, it sure as f*** didn’t translate in terms of deployment and ice time last game, did it.

 

[coladin]

They did not allow a 5 on 5 goal, and produced very few high quality chances 5 on 5. I think the best way to tighten up, is to have the puck, which they did for the better art of the game, and almost the entire 3rd period

Which is the exact opposite of the last game. Against Minny, they did have good stretches , but you could see the forwards starting to get beat to pucks. The defence are doing a decent job in their end, but it is the forwards who are not impedeing the opposition from gaining the blueline. It was so damn easy and looking at the goals and where they were scored from, you can see that the forwards have more to do with the losses than the defence

 

[Micklebot]

Jason York seems to be pinning our defensive struggles on the Norris injury, says our centers are too young and inexperienced to weather the loss.

 

[GCK]

Jason York seems to be pinning our defensive struggles on the Norris injury, says our centers are too young and inexperienced to weather the loss.

I posted earlier that when we were playing well the D were making that quick 5-10 foot pass to start the breakout. Our centres need to get low and be available, Losing Norris who was our best defensive centre hurt but it’s not like Stu and Pinto can’t at least learn how to be available. It’s all about awareness and anticipation, Stu was actually better at this last year.

 

[bicboi64]

Stupid post. DJ has sat Zaitsev for all but 1 game when he had his preferred 6 available.

Zaitsev’s minutes

Toronto game
10:49 EV 1:23 SH for 12:12 total. 5 minutes less than any other D.

Minnesota game
9:10 EV 3:10 SH for 12:20 total. 3 minutes less than any other D.

Florida game
14:49 EV 4:36 SH for 19:25 total.

Last game was a shitshow and an outlier in his deployment because they were searching for a pair that didn’t suck.

It’s clear through the first 8 games that DJ knows exactly what Zaitsev is and my personal opinion is that DJ would be dressing JBD instead of Zaitsev if he was up with Ottawa.

The posters who keep up with the DJ loves Zaitsev are either being purposefully obtuse or just making up reasons to rip on the coach.

So in an effort to find a pair that didn't suck, DJ proceeds to ice a pair in Chabot and Zaitsev that absolutely sucks? When a player has played 3 games, there's not enough data to even say a game is an outlier. DJ upped Zaitsev's play even though there is more than enough ice time to go around for other players not named Chabot.

What kinda of coach increases a 7th defender's, who has only played 2 games, ice time from 12 to 19 if a game is a shitshow? A minute or two more sure, but when every other defender available is better, it doesn't make sense and is absolutely valid critique of DJ, not just making up random reasons.