Gaudreau and Monahan gently bouncing off players in the o-zone and being separated from the puck by defenders simply invading their bubbles isn't what you want to see from your two best offensive players in the playoffs.
Poster above is completely right. You have to be willing to do things not in your usual comfort zone. Otherwise how do you expect to go deep. What's the point of making it there, to just continue to try to thread pucks around guys with as little contact as possible? They're not going to give you the space to do that.
If they used their weight and protected the puck with their bodies, rather than just their stickhandling, they would have the puck a hell of a lot longer, resulting in less of their shifts in our end defending.
In these games, you have to will the plays into happening. Free space to be fancy is no longer going to open up for those two, and if they're waiting for that, the series will be over before they get a chance to do one of their minor league tic-tac-toes while the defending teams stands and watches. Either have to beat them with speed, or push your way through.
Can't dispy-doodle to the net any more, at least not without speed.
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