Quote:
Originally Posted by CSharp
What's missing on this team at this time of the year is grit and some heavy bodies. This team cannot go toe to toe with a big heavy team in the playoffs.
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I don't buy that. They aren't getting beat up or bullied. Teams are playing tighter this time of year and the forwards aren't getting all the open ice they were in the first 3/4 of the season. It's on them to battle through the traffic and be smarter with their passing up the ice and in the opponents end.
For a while when they were rolling we were worried how they would fare in low scoring games as they were having issues keeping the puck out of the net due to poor defensive play and soft goaltending so the bright side here is that have played pretty well of late defensively and the goaltending has been better to the point it's at least average. I would argue that they could get by playing like this if the powerplay was functional as losing the special teams battles is ultimately costing them in these close games. This is one area where the coaching could also be better as they haven't changed their approach and teams are simply boxing them out knowing they like those cross ice passes from Gaudreau to Monahan and Lindholm.