Great article and analysis. For those of you who don't think it's too exceptionally long to read, I recommend that you do. It is really good, and I think she nails it. There are several good points, but the one that jumped out at me was the following:
Quote:
While the MO of the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Panthers was finding space off the puck with curved routes, east-west cuts, and delays or changes in speed, the Flames prefer to establish close proximity to the net and like to head straight north off the rush.
Doing so often involves skating into traffic and closing the gap between oneself and a defender. The space where a pass can hypothetically be received therefore shrinks, as does the window of time the lane remains available.
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This articulates so well, what has been bugging me for some time: the Flames, on odd man rushes, rarely make a good play because they rarely get open - they literally skate straight into the defenders (there are video clips in the article, demonstrating this).
There are multiple layers of problems, with respect to Huberdeau's game right now (including confidence, etc), but a couple of clearly evident problems are a hesitation before he passes, and passing into the defender. When you realize that the other Flame attackers are either skating into the defenders, skating into the same lanes, or exiting stage left, it explains the hesitation: his passing outlets simply don't exist.