Quote:
Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina
Well I think one issue is the lack of team speed against McDavid.
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I think this issue is overblown.
I go back to that series and I think of the blueline vs McDavid:
- Andersson did alright against McDavid, not great, but solid enough
- Hanifin, despite having better speed than Andersson, really got burned by McDavid, especially with poor decision-making and awareness. He's the player on our blueline I trust the least.
- Stone was outmatched by McDavid, but was only in there because of an injury.
- Zadorov got burned by McDavid, but most teams' third pairs would. Coach needs to protect his third pair better.
- Kylington-Tanev did very well against McDavid. Kind of got lost in the narrative because of the outcomes of games four and five, but shift-to-shift they really did contain him. Game 5 was McDavid's quietest and I don't believe that was a coincidence, he didn't have much space out there.
- Weegar is a superior skater to guys like Stone and Gudbranson who were here last year, so our blueline should be quicker. In fact, whereas Zadorov was the "skating" defenseman on a pair with Gudbranson, he'd be the "Big slow" defenseman on a pair with Weegar, and doesn't need to play as aggressively if Weegar handles that. That sums up to a pair that might be better than we expect, because I think Weegar's weaknesses might line up with Zadorov's strengths.
In fact game 4 I think we lost to depth guys like Nugent Hopkins and Hyman, and game 5 we only lost on a bad turnover
Unless Tanev loses a step, or we try to match up Monahan vs McDavid (why would we do that?), I think purely matchupwise, Backlund has the wits to check him.
I just want to see Noah Hanifin take a step forward in big matchups, or be traded.