Quote:
Originally Posted by Phaneufenstein
To add:
Gaudreau isn't playing with any kind of pace right now. He was most dangerous on zone entries forcing d-men to back off because he was flying in and was hard to read. Now it's just a lazy/scared zone entry, curl around look for a pass then get smothered by the other team until he runs out of options and turns it over.
It has to be a confidence thing. What's troubling though is that instead of working hard to fight through the skid, his effort looks pathetic at times.
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Confidence in
- himself?
or
- in him know what his teammates are going to be doing, and their confidence in turn that he can find them
I often go back to the old adage “under pressure, you sink to the level of your preparation”
To play with pace, you need all 5 guys playing with pace. That means they know where to go and you know where to find them.
There is an argument that the blender, while used to search for short term chemistry, may not exactly help develop the line chemistry that comes with familiarity.
I see it as not just the player effort, there are several layers of coaching to look at. Strategy and motivation are a couple.