Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperMatt18
Part of the problem is the style they play too.
It's very low risk offensive style of play that is reliant on high effort from the team, and generally invites a bit of pressure from the outside, but attempts to limit the high danger.
But if:
A) Your goalie has an average night and some of those outside chances go in.
B) Your team starts to make some out of character defensive zone mistakes and that pressure turns to more scoring chances
C) The level of energy / effort dips a bit in terms of forecheck / discipline
Then you could into some ugly stretches. Because as much as there is a lack of talent, the system also almost magnifies that a bit since they aren't going to take many risks to try to "cheat" for offense either.
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Curiously, early in the year, they played with two F below/straddling the goal line during the PP, with the other F and one D moving from half-boards to centre-slot; the remaining D stayed on the blue line. While this had the disadvantage of pulling all the oppo down towards the net (and leaving puck retrieval to the lone D on the blue line), they were reasonably successful moving the puck that way, and similarly even when not on the PP.
But they've stopped doing that, and have started sitting back taking perimeter (Sutter) shots again. Don't know if this is because Huska is preaching Defence and doesn't want to see them get lit up or not. But ... they're getting lit up anyway. Seems like the entire concept of their offence has regressed to "take no risk", and they've stopped playing as a team to drive their way to the front of the net. Frustrating as hell to watch a lot of the time.