2/29 VGK: Blood from a Stone
- Thread starter durandal1707
- Start date
After posting 79% in the first. Lohrei should be a wanted man in the state of Nevada.
FWIW, the problem is they stopped generating offense. The second period was shaky at times but they played tight D in the 3rd.
Our DMen aren’t mean enough.
My D partner for years was an AHL/IHL vet from the maritimes who asserted that the one ingredient that separated the sufficiently-talented minor leaguer from his NHL counterpart, was simple cruelty. If you were on that bubble, you had to be bone mean, or find it somewhere in you.
Radko Gudas maximizes his limited abilities with a generous helping of cruelty — who plays with a snarl on our back line? Nobody.
My D partner for years was an AHL/IHL vet from the maritimes who asserted that the one ingredient that separated the sufficiently-talented minor leaguer from his NHL counterpart, was simple cruelty. If you were on that bubble, you had to be bone mean, or find it somewhere in you.
Radko Gudas maximizes his limited abilities with a generous helping of cruelty — who plays with a snarl on our back line? Nobody.
This is why I think there's a coaching issue. The team plays different with a lead, they seem to sit back and try to hold it instead of continuing to push and generate offense since the break. Maybe I'm seeing something that's not there, but that's the eye test to me.
Is there a way to separate possession numbers to the game score?
Matches a story I was told in my NHLN days about Zdeno Chara when he first came up with the Islanders. Chara was a bit apprehensive about getting a fighting major, so I presume this referred to his first, which came against Randy McKay, in his second-ever NHL game. Chara goes, paraphrased, "Hey, I don't really want to go, but my coach would really like it if you did! So would you please go?" The implication was that Chara wasn't sure he was going to stay at that level so he wanted to find a way to stick out in a good way. But once it was on, it was on. As we were treated to for several years, Chara could obviously flip that switch like a light as necessary.
[asking someone else to do the work alert] I'd love to see it broken down by player, too.[/]
Losing Lindholm and Gryz not playing well really hamstrings the playmaking from the back, and probably forces the forwards deeper into the Dzone, which further hurts playmaking. And not having that Bergeron guy......
Someone in the general thread (I think) mentioned the big minutes that the top guys -- Marchand, Pasta, Coyle, McAvoy -- are playing. I'm beginning to think that in-game fatigue is affecting them. Not just the minutes. Coyle and Marchand have to cover 180 feet of ice almost every shift.
Just based on expected goals, all situations:
All scores: 3.08 xGF/60 3.01 xGA/60 (50.57%)
Leading: 2.86 xGF/60 2.94 xGA/60 (48.18%)
Tied: 3.21 xGF/60 2.94 xGA/60 (52%)
That doesn't seem too alarming. There is a dip when they are ahead that is not uncommon. Teams that have a lead play more conservatively and are facing more desperate attacks.
All scores: 3.08 xGF/60 3.01 xGA/60 (50.57%)
Leading: 2.86 xGF/60 2.94 xGA/60 (48.18%)
Tied: 3.21 xGF/60 2.94 xGA/60 (52%)
That doesn't seem too alarming. There is a dip when they are ahead that is not uncommon. Teams that have a lead play more conservatively and are facing more desperate attacks.
Yeah, I had a much longer reply about how all xGF% aren’t built equally (one line was deep underwater collectively, but were a non-event line, and I’m pretty sure it was JvR’s), but if I have any questions about the coaching, it’s the fact that Monty has had his longest pro coaching stint and some of his strategies may be well-detailed in video rooms, things like “when you forecheck, make sure to take out F3 and it’ll disrupt their breakout” or something. And only that because their breakout and neutral zone transition have been bad by the eye test this year.