I’m not talking so much about last night as the approach under Ruff in general. They just seem to have relied too much on individual stuff like late game or OT heroics and creative players making it happen for them. In some level I get that is what they are striving for but I’m skeptical that the staff is getting the most out of the players. A hard nose grinding system won’t fit the personnel but maybe there is a defensively sound system that hides the goalies a bit better and isn’t so risky? They at times look like an NFL team that always tries to throw deep passes. They are much lower percentage plays than a five yard drag route that moves the chains. Just my observation. You can certainly see it differently. I’m also not suggesting it’s all on the coaches. They are just part of it right now.
The swarm arguably is a grindy defensive system suited for teams that physically win board battles. Its goal is to initiate board battles with you outmanning the other team 2-1 or 3-2. The Devils don’t win those enough, even with a man advantage, so maybe that isn’t the right focus for the defensive.
You could run a system that asks the players not to initiate contact but instead stay between opponents and the goal and look to pick off forced passes and/or get into stick battles for pucks. This would slow the pace of the game down, which the Devils don’t want, but it would allow for odd man counterattack rushes and cut down on the time and space other teams get with the puck.
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The Devils wanting to outman in all situations really isn’t working this year. The Devils are seeing little benefit and other teams are able to flip the sides quickly and now the Devils are outmanned, which other teams have more time and space to take advantage of. The Devils going down the ice 4 on 3 only to have reversed into a 2 on 1 isn’t a great risk/reward trade.
The errors are probably a combination of player physical errors and teams prescouting finding the holes in the system.