[SuperMatt18]

Was curious so decided to watch some videos from 18-19 season this year to see if I can notice something in our defensive systems and it's obvious that this team is playing much slower and way more passive than they were in that season.

Personally I don't think these players just forgot to play a way that seems way more enjoyable to play, this has to be coaching and systems related.



In the first minute of the Hanifin video you see him step up to try and prevent a zone entry, and then he activates in the breakout moving his feet to help with the zone exit and zone entry. That is nowhere to be see with this team right now. The defense stepping up at our own blueline is the one that's crazy to me, you see them using it effectively a lot in this video, where as last year we were the 3rd worst team in the league at preventing zone entries. No doubt in my mind this is systemic.

Overall our defensive zone coverage is way more passive too. You don't see nearly as deep a collapse in our own zone in these videos.



You see the same theme in the Giordano video as well. More aggressive trying to hold our own blueline, d-men activing into the breakout and rush much more frequently, and our forwards playing way more aggressive on the other team's d-men in the defensive zone.

No chance our dmen attempt to make they play they made at 7:55 at our own blueline and step up at the line like they tried to do on Mackinnon there with the system we are playing now.

One day when I have some time I'm going to do a full breakdown of our systems prior to the 18/19 all-star break, and our systems since. I have no doubt in my mind that we changed our system to be way more passive, and defensive in the last year.

The advanced metrics show it, the eye test shows it, seems crazy to me that nobody in the media in this city has asked the coaching staff or team about how our systems look completley different in the last year compared to the year we finished second in the league.