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Originally Posted by taxbuster
Not sure that's gonna work in its entirety...most board battles provide the puck to the centre of the ice, so if you're not playing on the boards, the only offensive weapon you have is scoring off the rush...how's that gonna work against a team that just clogs up the centre of the ice?
Team has to be able to play in multiple styles and with multiple vectors to the net. This one doesn't. Johnny loses more battles because as soon as an opposing player comes close, he turtles and shies away...and often just loses the puck. That's just not going to work in the NHL. He's great at puck retrieval, but he's got to learn to get dirty, too. Mangi works because he DOES get dirty and has somewhat similar (though lesser) skills to Johnny.
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Every team has different rushes based on game situation of course.
It’s the ones that start to happen repeatedly and obviously don’t work that seem to be indicators of the coaches’ guidance
When Calgary was rushing, they were getting pucks up the boards, flooding strong side and the weak side support wasn’t there.
Watching Toronto, when they are to a side, you often have weak side D busting his ass to join the rush
Then you sometimes have a center just going straight up the middle with both wingers spread out, going in straight lines. They use the whole ice and structure is good with players without the puck
Flames are clearly being told a couple of relatively simple things by Sutter. If there is nothing essentially risk free as you enter the zone, dump it in. When in the o zone, get it to the point and get in front of the net.
This is why I have seen Tkachuk on a 2 in 2 with Lindholm dump the puck in the corner. Also why I have seen him get the puck in front and rather than even look to go from the slot towards the net, look for and find a D man
Flames right now are the reverse of the Hartley team. A lot of people complained about Hartley’s system being unsustainable because the analytics indicated so. That is wrong. They deliberately gave up the outside in the zone, were quick on transition, scored on the rush and D always had the green light, as long as they busted their ass to get back.
It was funny to watch Brodie do just that against the Flames, then see the Flames turn up ice, and Brodie got back to position and it actually looked like he cruised back while the Flames bungled their way up the ice
This team is taking the outside and able to generate ok shot totals but are not dangerous.
I see it similarly to NewEra. The team had a drafting philosophy for a few years towards speed and hockey IQ, and they want to play uptempo fire wagon hockey
Coaches at some point decide that’s not how you win, so they try to bring in the grinding ‘playoff hockey’ elements, and then everyone watches other teams kick their asses
Gotta play the style for which you are built