What happened to this team's focus on possession?

[IcedCapp]

Sorry I missed it. What did he say, if you don't mind repeating?

something like, "we don't want to be a skilled team, we want to be a grinding team"

 

[Waffle Fries]

Sorry I missed it. What did he say, if you don't mind repeating?

something like, "we don't want to be a skilled team, we want to be a grinding team"

Yepp. Pierre was interviewing him about the gameplan and he responded with this gem.

 

[Shady Machine]

something like, "we don't want to be a skilled team, we want to be a grinding team"

Fantastic.

 

[billybudd]

Whatever the coach's culpability is in this, the Penguins don't have the horses. That trend you're referencing coincides with Jordan Staal, a tremendous possession player, being traded for Brandon Sutter, who is a terrible possession player and always will be, while the rest of the bottom six was gutted via UFA or, in Adams' case, is way too old now.


On a side note, if Gibbons is the best FF% player, he's not going to remain that way for much longer. Hobbits that are useless on the wall and cannot establish body position anywhere are normally not positive possession players on their career. In fact, they usually end up in the high 30s for FF%.

Gibbons struggles to crack the lineup because he's not an NHL player, period.

 

[billybudd]

So we have bad players. I mean, if your bottom 6 can't keep the puck out of your end, what purpose do they serve?

If your bottom 6 can't keep the puck out of your own end, the purpose they should probably serve is chaos and intimidation. Unfortunately, ours can't do that, either.

 

[Will Hunting]

We are falling in puck possession since Letang´s injury. Now we should realize that Letang is still important for us. As for the actual reasons of our awful puck possession, see Scuderi, Glass, Orpik etc. I mean, especially Scuderi, he must be the worst in the NHL in this aspect now.

 

[wgknestrick]

We are falling in puck possession since Letang´s injury. Now we should realize that Letang is still important for us. As for the actual reasons of our awful puck possession, see Scuderi, Glass, Orpik etc. I mean, especially Scuderi, he must be the worst in the NHL in this aspect now.

That still doesn't explain why the "team" has lost focus on this. They consistently chose the less effective possession players over the good (usually young) ones. They did not do that in the past.

 

[Shady Machine]

That still doesn't explain why the "team" has lost focus on this. They consistently chose the less effective possession players over the good (usually young) ones. They did not do that in the past.

The answer to that is fairly obvious. We don't have enough veterans that are good at possession and are trusted by Bylsma. Gladams are trusted by Bylsma. Megna, Vitale (not that he's particularly good at possession) aren't trusted by Bylsma.

 

[themethod7]

Decent article on hockeybuzz of all places re: pens and puck possession, found here: http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog.php?post_id=58564

TPB also posted a good article around the same time: http://thepensblog.com/2014-archives/the-pittsburgh-penguins-and-puck-possession.html

some good charts there, comparing our corsi stats to some of the other top teams. Even more telling was the comparison to the 2011-2012 Pens:

2013-2014:

2011-2012:

Good thing we got away from that high flying 2008-2012 model and turned ourselves into a premier grinding team, eh?

 

[IcedCapp]

the problem is, the Penguins - despite their claims otherwise - don't care about advance stats and metrics like that. They are no different than a football coach who says, "we need to run the ball and stop the run to win!" despite loads of evidence that suggests the opposite.

Bylsma's entire coaching philosophy is built on a foundation of cliches.

 

[Ugene Magic]

Wrong thread.

 

[The Big Dawg*]

i love when i watch the behind the room/in the locker room pregame speech with Bylstard. He's usually saying "lets keep em under 20 here or lets get 40 on them" or something to that effect with that smug ****ing look on his face. I wonder to myself if he ever realizes our team has never kept anyone under 20 shots and if anything, the other good teams lately have been keeping us under 20 shots throughout most of the game until its too late then we shoot ton of non-screened wristers from the blue line to boost our shot total so it doesn't look too bad.

 

[wgknestrick]

i love when i watch the behind the room/in the locker room pregame speech with Bylstard. He's usually saying "lets keep em under 20 here or lets get 40 on them" or something to that effect with that smug ****ing look on his face. I wonder to myself if he ever realizes our team has never kept anyone under 20 shots and if anything, the other good teams lately have been keeping us under 20 shots throughout most of the game until its too late then we shoot ton of non-screened wristers from the blue line to boost our shot total so it doesn't look too bad.

Nothing wrong with those "goals", but the utter stupidity on who he dresses to achieve that goal is the entire thread.

 

[pistolpete11]

Nothing wrong with those "goals", but the utter stupidity on who he dresses to achieve that goal is the entire thread.

I actually have a problem with those goals, especially with the “let’s get 40â€. It’s not about quantity, but quality. It’s like TK-syndrome. Yeah, he got a lot of shots, but so many of them were momentum killing, possession losing shots to the crest of the goalie. To a lesser extent, the same is true on defense. If you’re going all out to stop shots, you might be exposing yourself somewhere else. Sometimes it is better to just let them take a shot from the perimeter and rely on your goalie to make the easy save.