[ComixZone]

I still don't see it on that shift.

Bennett charges up the ice, gaining the offensive zone, gives it to Dube who gives it to Tkachuk who promptly throws the puck away with a brutal pass to Dube. Tkachuk then effectively walks off the ice with a brutal effort on the line change while he watches the attack go the other way.

The small 2 on 1 with Chiasson/Neal is played rather poorly by Valimaki, who effectively takes himself out of the play. Following that, Hanifin slides back into his own goalie jamming Rittich up. With Valimaki being somewhat aggressive (and failing) in how he handled Chiasson/Neal, it's on Hanifin to slide over and shut down the short side attack - instead he slides into the goalie, taking himself out of the play. At the same time that Hanifin is laying in the crease, Bennett is back-filling what should have been the area that Hanifin vacated to shutdown the short side attack. What did Valimaki do after he got beat badly? He cycles back correctly, and is in position to defend the cluster !@#$, but doesn't play it physically at all and instead reaches for a stick lift.

The fact that Bennett got benched, when he tracked back correctly while Valimaki and Hanifin then blew their plays is baffling. Not to mention Tkachuk walking off the ice. Yeah, Bennett could have read it better and attacked the short side when he saw Hanifin doing whatever the hell he was doing, but when two other players blow it we then blame Bennett for not reading and adapting perfectly to cover up BOTH of the other mistakes made?

The whole play was a disaster, just like this team. You see why they say it's in the details - 5 of the 7 players involved completely screwed the pooch (Rittich, Bennett, Valimaki, Hanifin, Tkachuk - only Dube and I believe Lucic, who replaced Tkachuk, are blame free)

1 - Tkachuk's brutal pass to Dube leading to the giveaway, followed up by Tkachuk lazily walking off the ice.
2 - Bennett slows up a bit once he realizes he's tracked back effectively and will end up in more or less the right position. There's no need to slow up. Burn it all the way down.
3 - Valimaki's poor reading of the play that gave up the zone while the opposition came in with speed, taking himself out of the play
4 - Hanifin is utterly confused and does exactly the wrong thing (...don't slide into your own goalie)
5 - Valimaki's weak recovery attempt
6 - Hanifin remains on the ice doing nothing
7 - Bennett is standing still somewhat in position, but effectively does nothing
8 - Rittich's post play was poor (and yes, he otherwise had a good night)

The goal against started with Tkachuk being 2021 Tkachuk, and ended with failures from Rittich, Valimaki, Bennett and Hanifin.

When you have so many players failing to perform - it's a systemic issue. It's a coaching issue, a leadership issue, a management issue, and it's a culture of losing.