Quote:
Originally Posted by Flame On
What is there to decide. No one is threatened by Ritchie, no one is threatened by Sean, and as a result they can just key in on Johnny. If he tries to push through it he gets plastered to the boards, if he doesn't cretins will accuse him of not being tough and pulling up. At least with a skilled and fellow nippy player they may actually back off the D as they rush.
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Hey I'm on the Phillips bandwagon and want to see him play on Gaudreau and Monahan's wing, but I don't think Ritchie has been bad there. I think he's the best of those 3 on that line right now, he's doing his job.
Against Montreal, Mony and Johnny were making proper dumps and Ritchie was getting to the puck and establishing the forecheck and zone time. They produced some offense in those games.
Against Edmonton, the dumps weren't done properly, plus you also were up against Mike Smith who is pretty good and combating the dump and chase.
Against, Toronto, the dumps were just terrible. Johnny especially was dumping the puck into places Ritchie couldn't get to.
Dump and chase is not really that easy to do. It takes a lot of communication between the players and recognition and chemistry. It's a skill that Johnny should learn because it is a great option for him to use if the opposition isn't given him a clean entry. Johnny does seem frustrated with it but he really should give it more effort and practice it more.
It's clear to me and this is based on what Ritchie said in a pre-game before the first Oilers game, that getting that line to dump and chase is designed to open up more clean entries for Gaudreau. The opposition knows that Gaudreau wants to skate the puck in and set up and they are defending him for that. Darryl wants him to develop the dump and chase so that he has this option to use. If the opposition is going to take away Gaudreau's entry, then they go to the dump and chase and establish possession that way. The hope is that they perfect the dump and chase to the point where the opposition has to defend that more and therefore give Gaudreau more room on the entries.
The problem is that Gaudreau and Monahan have been making really bad dumps in the past 3 games which has really killed the dump and chase option. They need to be better.