As a competitive hockey player, im telling you that gap closure doesnt fall into that category. Gap closure is a skill that has to be developed. Coaches cant do everything for players. They have to read plays on their own most of the time.
As a former very competitive hockey player I can tell you scheme matters just as much, if not more, than the developed skill.
Notice how the Blues defensemen almost always angled the rushing forward the same way every time? That's a scheme, and that's why players who hadn't been on the Blues for an extended period of time (Bortuzzo, Lindbohm, etc.) tended to look better when they joined the Blues. They hadn't been exposed to Hitch/Shaw's system enough so they did what very talented players do until fully enmeshed in the scheme...they went with their instinctual play which is to force gap closure at the blue line as almost every system ever created ever does.
Ever.
Hitch's system is built around a slower defensive pairing and high pursuit forwards creating an enormous amount of pressure and forcing a poor shot or pass from above the circles. It gives the appearance of having room, sort of like a goalie pretending to give a five-hole then taking it away.
The defense giving up the linear control typically afforded by the blueline and instead converting that control to essentially create a wedge toward the center of the ice keeps the opposition from driving down the sidewall, doing a cross-corner dump-in or doing anything fancy once the blueline has been gained. This final part is disrupted by the returning forwards and only by the returning forwards.
The issue is that with a fairly mobile defense, you really don't need to use that system and in fact it becomes harder to truly enforce. Using the blueline as a control point with a semi-active forward return is fine because it forces the opposition to dump the puck in allowing the other defenseman to turn and burn to grab the puck and force the attack the other way.
Hitch's plan works well when the other team doesn't have enough time to learn how to explicitly beat it or if the other team doesn't have a large enough amount of speed/skill to collapse the wedge. The Blues have issues with the latter against Chicago (and the former, but the latter especially) and this year's playoff against Minnesota proved that the former is true as well.
So, sorry but you're wrong. I was forced to play in a system very similar to the one Hitch is currently using and I can assure it might have very well been the most maddening thing to play I can remember. Even the coach who told us we were too talented for a system (came in at the half-way point due to some issues between the management and the outgoing coach) was less frustrating to deal with.
