Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff Lebowski
This is wrong IMO. The breakouts are coached and CGY is going strong side of the ice and up the boards. It is problematic. They have to open up the break out and be more creative.
Good teams look flawless and effortless when breaking out and CGY look rushed and in some cases paniced (Leivo going up the right - head down put a short pass behind the centre. The answer is not Leivo is a bad player it's just too concentrated on one side players feel pressure). Many times it looks forced. It's easy to defend against that.
TOR in the latter part of game was able to easily breakout against CGY forecheck because they had 4 guys go back to retrieve (they are not clogging neutral zone). They are coached like that. TOR play compact and have confidence to make those short passes.
Now TOR is a confident team and expect to win. CGY got up and perhaps feeling a little fragile were kind of defensive so that may have factored in.
Not trying to take anything away from win last night but CGY breakout looks way different than TOR and of course skill is involved but it is coaching. If you watch how they move it is coaching, the routes etc. Once it's in the offensive zone yeah read and react (but coaching too).
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How do you get creative when the opposition is on top of you the second you touch the puck? How can it possibly be more on the coach when the player has only has split seconds to react and make a play before he’s either hit or turns the puck over from pressure? These players don’t have time to think “what would the coach want me to do right now?” There aren’t many ways to be crazy here, they generally just have a small window of time to read and quickly react most of the time and I’m pretty sure an NHL coach like Ward, who has put decades into the game and who’s paid to only watch and think about hockey all day and everyday as his job, would probably know more then any of us armchair noobs about how to breakout of the zone.