I watched the 1st and part of the 2nd.
The P.K. was very aggressive. There was forechecking up the ice. They stood up on the defensive blue line.
The P.P. utilized a 1-3-1.
I paid special attention to the defencemen. Two things:
-at 5 v 5, they were very involved in the offence, often leading the rush;
-at 5 v 5, they seemed rather passive at the offensive blue line in the 1st, giving it up repeatedly (I couldn’t tell whether this was because the defencemen were instructed to be passive or whether there just weren’t many plays directly up the wall); this changed in the 2nd when I noticed repeated occasions of the defencemen standing up at the offensive blue line.
I thought the breakouts were just fine in general.
Peters’ system seemed conducive to lots of offensive zone time (plenty of cycling the puck).
The biggest takeaway was about the good chances. I looked for the “cross royal road pass chances.” I think Kinkaid was excellent, but I also feel some of the 44-24 shots and Kinkaid’s superior save % was the Americans’ ability to get “cross royal road pass chances.” I think the Canadians allowed a lot of odd man rushes. I’m not sure if this was sloppiness or something about Peters’ system. All this said, Canada also got plenty of these chances.
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