Quote:
Originally Posted by Makarov
I haven't seen a lot of people asking how the F McDavid was so wide open in the slot. I was very surprised by that. Not sure what happened on the American coverage.
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Not really sure what Matthews thought was happening there. He's the centre, McDavid is in the middle, who did he think was going to cover him when he turned towards Marner?
Was the original gameplan that Slavin was always going to cover McDavid in the slot, with the centre covering the winger? So when Fox and Hanifin get stuck out there instead, the coverage got messed up? This gives the most benefit of the doubt to Matthews, I just don't think it's really the case. Based on where everybody else was, McDavid was his guy regardless of a game plan. Did he think Hughes was supposed to drop back that far, leaving the outlet pass to Toews wide open? Or Nelson and leave Makar wide open? None of it makes any sense, only that players make mistakes, and Matthews' mistake just happened to be leaving Connor McDavid wide open in the slot in overtime.
Fox also over-committed across the crease when Makar sent it around the boards, which gave Marner a lot more space, which probably caused Matthews to think he had to shift over as well, so being the Flames fan I think we can throw some blame at Fox as well.