Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch
If you respect a player too much your going to get burned elsewhere
In football if I double cover a superstar wide receiver its going to open other passing lanes. If I spy on a running back they're going to pop the ball over him into the empty space.
When Gretzky played a lot of teams gave him way to much respect, I'm not talking about health respect, and so they gave him time and space especially behind the net and he sat there and let the play develop.
With McDavid you have to respect his speed absolutely, but if you do something like say play a zone where you give him the initiative he's going to kill him.
When the Sedin's were successful teams sat back and let them do their cycle thing and someone would inevitably come free. Then teams began to get aggressive on their cycle and they lost a lot of effectiveness.
You want to show McDavid respect, but not so much respect that you lose your offensive initiative. That means to me that when he's on the ice you focus on your possession of the puck. Get it deep overload it and force him to either play defense or pin him on the boards.
And play your best skating defenseman high on him.
Plus an occasional shot to the face would help.
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True - this is happening to JG. Early on players were afraid to play him tight because they figured he'd beat them. He would then proceed to use the space effectively. Now they are playing him tighter and he's having a harder time.