I'd never be able to play Saturday's. That's my real Hockey night! Yeah, he tries it against me all the time in 14 and he gets destroyed. In 13 he would dominate me cause of it. BUT, yes. Def needs to pass. A forward with the douche shot could be an advantage though when we are down and boom, tie it up cause the other teams want to be douchers. Yet, I'm going to be honest here, I've seen wingers skate the puck up while Nate is waiting at the line or has a full head of steam and stops. It kills his momentum. Where as if you pass it to him, you could keep going and he could give you the give and go pass or he goes in and you trail. I will say, as puck movement and passing goes, it's amazing how we dominate that category. Also, if you see me behind the net, I'm actually trying to read eveanybody. It slows down the pace to get collected and allows people to move where they need to. It's just one of those tools. I also know I need to get rid of it sooner as well sometimes.
Indeed...it's all a matter of balance. Again, it comes down to awareness. I do think there are certain things we need to incorporate that have to be LEARNED in order to look for them. It's easy to fall back into old habits because in previous games, we could get away with only having 2-3 "options" and we could be fairly successful. But to really improve, and do better in this year's game, we need to have 5-6 "options".
One of the things that drives me nuts is bunching up the ice. Unless you've got a clear lane, trying to cut toward the middle of the ice just makes more defenders available to have a shot at you, and it gives your teammates limited places they can go to get open. But if you swing wide, we can spread the ice and one forward can be on the opposite board if the crosser opens up, and the trailing forward can hang back in the high slot (or even directly behind you for a drop pass) if the defense crashes the net.
And if the defense is actually playing properly, you'll still have the option of skating/dumping the puck behind the net and letting the forward on the other board crash for it. Or, you'll have your d-men settling in on the blue line as a passing option too. Too often, we try cutting toward the middle and turn the puck over. These plays can be avoided. We just have to start looking for different things than what's so ingrained in us.
This is exactly what I've been saying for like a year now.
Also, this is what I've been trying to say too for when we are in the offensive zone, and a forward skates the puck from the slot back to the Dmen. Stop doing that. Just pass it to us and make yourself open without skating back to the blue line.
And I do believe I've been agreeing for like a year, lol
Maybe I do it more because by playing center, I'm just used to having to watch for when I need to get back to help out on defense, but I try my best to keep an eye on where the d-men are. I can lose track of you guys sometimes, but in general, if I see one of you has a chance to crash and make a play, and I'm in the area, I'll hang back.
But if I'm pinned in a corner or on my back from getting lit up, somebody else has to take notice. Basically, we should very rarely have 4 players at the faceoff circle or closer (unless our other d-man is in like a punt return formation, lol...and even then, probably not something we want to do very often).
Obviously, the game still sucks, and we get screwed by countless things that aren't our fault. But it's one thing if we play flawless and lose. But if we play down to teams and beat ourselves, complaining about the game starts to feel kind of stupid.
