Quote:
Originally Posted by Jay Random
What matters even more is pulling in the right direction. In particular: to play a good defensive game takes great effort, practice, teamwork, and moreover, experience in dealing with errors and unforeseen situations. You can get that experience with the help of experienced players who have a track record of successful play, or you can do it the hard way.
Coaches can teach how to play a system, but they aren't on the ice to show by example how to react when breakdowns occur.
Look at Connor McDavid. If he's on the ice and one of his teammates makes a defensive mistake, he often suffers a ‘controller disconnect’ moment. At the beginning of his career, sound defence was not part of the Oilers' culture, and he had nobody to learn from by example. By the time they brought in players who could have shown him what to do, he was the captain and simply snubbed anyone who thought they had anything to teach. So at critical moments in games, you'll see him coasting back into his zone, neither moving his feet nor trying to break up the play, just watching the other team score.
That's what a loss of organizational culture gets you.
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I haven't the faintest idea of how this minor leaguer Knoblauch is getting the best defensive systems play out of that group that has shown in the McCoaster era. None of it adds up, especially with the alleged locker room noise around Kane/Draisaitl. They should be more run and gun and disorganized than ever.
They'll still be bested by good teams at even strength, but the way
that group has limited damage against is perplexing. It's certainly not in their organizational culture as you say.
I'm going to go with "just an illusion" which will crumple in a few weeks like clockwork.