Quote:
Originally Posted by shadowlord
The problem on the Flames PP zone entries was never Gaudreau himself. It was that the team ONLY and PREDICATABLY gave the puck to Johnny on every single attempt, no matter what. So opposition defenders just focused on him and swarmed him 4-on-1, he'd get outmanned at just inside the blue line and turnover the puck.
That's not his fault, it's the team's idiotic PP strategy. I remember multiple games this season where they'd pass it to Gaudreau 3 or 4 times within a single powerplay and get turned back at the opposition blue line with every attempt. They never tried to get it anyone else.
Since Sutter took over, we've been seeing other players on PP1 attempting a zone entry as well and it's been more successful. It seems like Lindholm is the next most common. This takes the opposition PKers focus off of Gaudreau.
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Sutter has experience, knows he has to mix it up to keep other teams off guard. Sutter has talked about the importance of building through the center position. Teams have also figured out Gaudreau and Monahan. It is nice to see Sutter split them up and get them playing with different players, and focusing on other parts of their game.