[Zoller]

He likes to dump and chase... A lot

"When we've been at our best we put the puck behind teams and establish a forecheck"

"You can't always carry it in... You gotta put it in behind people... If you're trying to pull up and delay and you're 5 feet inside the blue line and you turn it over there, it's the kiss of death"

This last quote seems like it's directed at Johnny. Gone are the days of Gaudreau carrying the puck into the offensive zone and stopping just inside the blue line, often using the button hook. Gaudreau has had some success using this move in the past, but we've also seen it backfire. Personally, I think Johnny looks best when he's got linemates who are driving the net and backing off defenders, allowing Johnny to cut to the middle of the ice and either put the puck on net or connect with a pass to the trailer.

Now we're seeing Gaudreau dump the puck in and Monahan or Lindholm give chase. Monahan doesn't have the best puck retrieval skills. Lindholm will have to pick up the slack here if this is going to be our main forecheck strategy.

Another thing I noticed from the first game was our wingers waiting at the opposing blue line for the slap pass/dump into the zone, often quite stationary. This may have allowed us to dump the puck in from behind the red line without icing the puck, but because our players are basically at a stand still, they we're not able to get in behind the other team. The timing seems a bit off. If you're going to have one player standing still waiting for the slap pass, the other winger needs to be at full stride crossing the blue line at the same time as the puck. Hopefully this improves with time.