Quote:
Originally Posted by GioforPM
So you are judging Ward's overall coaching by his last 5 games? Slumps happen - the Lightning have scored 8 goals in their last 4, and one of those was a four goal game. And they were playing terrible teams in all 4.
I think the offence could use more pop for sure and the top line needs someone more compatible on the wing to make it happen, and to be less predictable. I think Backlund is struggling with wing positioning, which surprises me. The second line could use someone a little more gifted than Mangiapane. But I don't think it's coaching. The D to D thing I think is situational. They do it sometimes, but you never see what's going on up ice because of camera shots. If teams sit back, it's not easy to push up the ice quickly - you need to take it a bit more methodically.
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Yeah, I know slumps happen but this is systematic
They are giving the team time to set up defensively. You can see what they are doing and there is only so much room missing from the camera shot up to the far blue line.
I watched last night, saw Brodie and Gio at the top of their own circles, no pressure, and said to the person I was watching the game with that the Leafs would have the puck within 3 seconds.
You see the forwards come back and run the routes and then the D still hang on to the puck until the forward has nothing to do but turn around and wait for the D to do something.
It’s like it was with Smith having the puck behind the net where Gio and Hamilton went in to the corners, just starting higher up now. They are giving themselves no room to work with and playing without pace.
I agree with Sarich’s comments on Backlund. He is a centre and as determined as the team is to use Lindholm as a C, they are getting much less out of Backs on the wing