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Old 10-07-2013, 12:31 PM   #79
Flash Walken
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Hartley is using more or less the same sorts of 'junior coaching tactics' that Brent favoured:

Hard forecheck, hard packpressure, stick to your assignments in the defensive end, don't turn the puck over in the neutral zone and attack as a 4 man unit transitioning over the blueline. The strong side defender pinches when he has support from the strong side winger.

Hartley has larger gaps between forward and defense and has his guys giving up more defensive zone real-estate, but I don't think things are radical. Hartley pushes the tempo whereas Brent favours containment. Over the balance of the season I think you'd see that rifling the puck up the boards to a charging winger is slightly less effective overall than breaking out as a unit, but, odd-man rushes are exciting, consistently enveloping the puck in the neutral and defensive zones is not.

Things like lazy changes, lazy backchecks, button hooks and drop passes probably aren't in either coaches' playbook.
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