Quote:
Originally Posted by JJolg
Lol you can't be soft and constantly setup in front of the net... Players that are soft avoid those areas.. I'm not a big fan of Monahan but this is ridiculous. It's also hard on all the guys on the ice to play d when johnny is flying the zone early.
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That play is made by design, you blow the zone early to force the defenseman to back out of the zone so they don’t pinch and it leads to a counter attack. Lots of teams deploy this tactic, you just need a fast winger to pull it off as they need to get behind the defenseman.
Also, as a winger, your main job is to take the point shot out of the play and get that puck out when it rims around your side which is not a strength of Gaudreau at all. But outside of that, I generally think he’s willing to back check hard when necessary whereas with Monahan, since he’s a center, naturally his defensive responsibilities are heightened and when because he has such a hard time getting back to defensive zone, he’s always chasing and I constantly see him puck watching and leaving his man open.
If this team had a #1 center with stronger defensive acumen, then we could match him up against the Mackinnons and the McDavids and not worry about sheltering his line by giving them so many offensive zone starts and easy situations.
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