Cats are now #1 in points, wins, regulation wins, regulation and OT wins, goal differential and are the only team in the 700s for points percentage. 3 points up on 2nd place with a game in hand on both VAN and BOS. You know what blows my mind about them the most? Their powerplay.
Here's a recent game against Detroit. Watch their second and fourth goals. Same players, same PP1 deployment, two different formations.
Second goal (4:18) is the bumper formation. Chucky low, Reinhardt in the high slot, Montour up high for support, Verhaeghe as the weakside option and Barky's quarterbacking the whole thing from the strongside wall.
Fourth goal (7:32) features the same PP1 unit, but this time in a more traditional box formation. Same players, but now we've got Barky in front of the net with Verhaeghe and Tkachuk on the walls and Renhardt is up top with Montour. Watch the rotation that occurs when Reinhardt slides down into the slot and Verhaeghe rotates up to cover the point for him.
Here's their game against Jersey. For the second goal (0:53), PP2 is out there now with Chucky pulling double duty. It's the usual bumper with Bennett QBing from the wall... but watch what happens as he and Tkachuk start to switch spots. You can see OEL and Rodrigues each alternate between high and low, and Ekblad slowly back away into the middle, effectively changing the entire frormation from bumper (OEL was up high for support while Bennett was facing pressure on the wall) to an ubrella and back to bumper again for the goal.
It's so good. It's like, decisions open the door to mistakes, and Florida forces the PK to have to make decisions on the fly. Trying to catch that one guy out of position so they can attack. I don't know how much of that is coaching though. I mean, it's not like there's someone on a headset calling out plays. The overall system is probably designed by the PP coach, but you have to have players that can read/react to what the QB is doing and then (of course) have the skills to capitalize on it.
It's such a stark contrast to watching our PPs and how 90% of our powerplay time is spent on just trying to gain the zone and retain/regain possession. One thing to really point out though, and this is most likely all about coaching, is that defenceman aren't the only QBs anymore. So if a team like ours can't find a D to QB our poweplay effectively, then why are we still trying to use a system that relies on a D to quarterback it?
And they just added Tarasenko. They should be the team to beat out of the East. Florida is a solid team. I think they might go after a defenseman and that's all they really need to do.
Barkov, Tkachuk, Reinhart, Tarasenko, Verhaegae, Bennett, Lundell, Rodrigues, Luostarinen is a solid top 9.
I mean, if you're looking at the team's numbers this year and you don't think they're proving to the league that they're legitimate? I don't know what to tell you.
Every year is different, and the Panthers of last year aren't the same as this year. Quite frankly, they're better this year, especially defensively, which is something I wouldn't have said last year.
I've been pumped about the Oilers 5v5 possesion numbers this year. You go to natural stat trick and see them top 3 in every category.
I noticed Florida is there in every category as well.
Florida getting back to the finals shouldn't surprise anyone.
