Quote:
Originally Posted by polak
If so you should tell that to the the Penguins who won the cup and made the finals with under 50% Corsi. Why is it so hard to believe that a team that has weak cycling can build a system to be successful in other ways?
|
You absolutely can. It's just hard. In the Penguins' case, it requires having the two best hockey players on Earth, and to the extent they haven't been successful since, a lot of it has to do with how weak the rest of the roster is. Can't play those guys 60 minutes.
In other teams' cases, e.g. MTL this year, it requires world-class goaltending, or a massive difference between PK GA and PP GF (usually this also has something to do with goaltending).
In an ideal world, you want to give your team every chance to win. Hence, since it's really pretty hard to get the best players in the world (if "just draft Crosby" was a strategy the Oilers would have done it already), and it can be hard to get goaltending good enough for long enough to have the guy carry your team on his back. So, it's simply good management to try to get your roster and coaching staff pulling in the direction of puck possession, so you don't need those things to at least be competitive consistently.
I know this is going to fall on deaf ears and your question will be raised again, but that's the way it goes on the internet.