Quote:
Originally Posted by GullFoss
The problem isn't the quickness of the Avs players. Its that the flames are playing slow and letting the Avs play fast. Playing fast isn't really speed of the players. It's four components:
(1) Quick transitions
(2) Tape to tape passes
(3) Direction of play (North-South) vs (East-West)
(4) Skating fast
The flames look slow and the Avs look fast because:
(1) Avs are breaking up the flames North-South passing and transitioning up ice quickly with numbers
(2) Avs are clogging up the center of the ice and are forcing the flames to dump pucks in
(3) Flames are not on the ball - bad pinches, terrible turnovers in vulnerable spots
(4) Flames first line is playing like dog ####
Whats the answer?
(1) Coaching - Flames has to respond to what the Avs are doing. If the Avs are scoring on transition, then flames need to play more passive and have the center play more defensively. The flames have to play more patient. Slow down the Avs - don't let them transition by ensuring a tighter gap between offence-defence by having a less aggressive offence. Clog up the neutral zone to limit the ability for Avs to go North-South
(2) Players have to dial in - Stop making mistakes. Play with more intensity. Play with more focus.
Come on guys - this isn't rocket science why the Avs looks so good. The Avs didn't turn into the Harlem Globetrotters. The answers for the flames are within the room and Avs are solvable.
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Agree - in yesterday's game, it was absurd how much room the Avs had on the numerous 3 on 2's that they had entering the zone. I think this can be partially explained by the D backing off more so that they wouldn't get burned wide by MacKinnon on the outside like they did in previous games, but this gave the Avs way more room to pass it around once they entered the offensive zone. Calgary's forwards need to be way more engaged on the backcheck to take away that space.
From what I saw, it was not only Colorado breaking up the N-S passing from Calgary, but the E-W pass attempts by Calgary (predominantly Johnny) that occurred shortly after Calgary gained the zone. There were at least a half dozen times where Johnny would gain the blue line, button hook back and look for the pass across the ice, but Colorado would intercept and then they would be on an odd man rush with speed in the other direction. No doubt, tighter execution would allow Gaudreau to thread a few passes through like he did often in the regular season - but every miss is going to be costly. I wonder if it would be better if he carried the puck in deeper out wide before looking for a pass - I guess the trouble is that he isn't fast enough to outrun the D consistently enough to prevent getting rubbed out on the boards. Carrying the puck up through the middle hasn't worked well for him either as he kept trying to fight his way through 3 or 4 defenders and getting stripped of the puck. Lindholm has proven tenacious in the past in digging out pucks along the boards - he needs to get back to his earlier season form on that so that it's not all on Johnny to manage possession in the offensive zone.