Quote:
Originally Posted by Enoch Root
Hanifin had a tough series. No question. However, there are other factors here that influenced that a great deal:
1) Kylington-Tanev, the other shut down pair, was completely absent, effectively doubling the responsibilities for Hanifin-Andersson
2) the forwards played terribly defensively, allowing McDavid to gain possession and full speed from the neutral zone, effectively leaving the defensemen hung out to dry. And that happened a LOT - far too often - and because Hanifin-Andersson were out there for most of the tough assignments, they wore the brunt of that.
3) Markstrom had a tough series, and when the D were beaten, the puck wound up in the net more often than not. Defensemen get beat regularly, that's part of hockey - that's why you need good goaltending.
Just saying 'Hanifin had a bad series, he can't handle McDavid' is over simplistic at best, if not wildly naive.
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Yeah the forwards went into that Colorado series mode where they were afraid to get burned so gave up on the forecheck and stood around in the neutral zone waiting for the Oilers to come with speed.
Completely abandoned their game.