I just watched the first two periods, as I was at the Jim Gaffigan show on Saturday. I mostly watched what the Oilers do on the ice.
GG runs the offense. Three forwards must come into the o-zone together. Sounds great, except that since they have to go in together, the Flames have a ton of time to set up. The d does a lot of back passes now. They pass it back and the back player skates up with speed. Totally useless, as this gives the opposing team plenty of time to set up, yet again.
McDavid must enter the zone first. His linemates are never allowed to enter first. They will actually do the side pass to McDavid to let him enter first, even if they are ahead of him.
Nurse is the only d-man allowed to make forward passes from the d-zone. Passes up the middle are not allowed. Therefore d-passes to McDavid never happen. Their forwards line up in the middle of the opposing neutral zone closer to the boards, waiting to receive the pass. They actually always face the wrong way because Nurse cannot make long accurate passes, so by the time the forwards are in position Nurse is still has to skate up past the d-zone hash marks to make his pass.
All the other d-men are not allowed to pass from the d-zone. They must carry the puck of the d-zone and make short passes to the forwards. Forwards are not allowed to exit the d-zone with the puck. They will pass it back to a d-man.
Kris Russell is now forbidden to pass. At all. He is only allowed to carry the puck out of the d-zone. Only his partner is allowed to make forward passes. Russell is also forbidden to shoot the puck up the boards. Remarkable. At least Hitchcock understands just how useless he is as a defender. All their other d-men are completely useless.
This offensive scheme is extremely predictable and rather easy to defend against. It also somewhat neuters McDavid's speed advantage.
Thanks Hitchcock and GG!
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