I live in Vancouver, so I don't access much Montreal media. Perhaps the coaches have been asked this in the past and replied. I'd appreciate any info you can give me:
- Why is is so common to see the opposition pointperson possess the puck in the Habs' defending zone with the closest Hab more than 15 feet away?
- Habs are poor in the defensive zone. No doubt. Much the blame is put on the young D, but there are usually 3 F's on the ice at the same time. Are Habs' F's weak defensively as a group?
- Is the HAbs' defensive strategy to 1) Take the puck away from the opposition; or 2)Wait for opposition to give up the puck? I believe it's #2
- Why do Habs' forecheck when it is so ineffective? Before you blink an eye, the opposition is entering the HAbs' blueline
All of these things are deliberate moves by the coaching staff
The short answer is yes.
The uncontested ice is killing us.
For me the neutral zone is a huge problem. Teams who control the neutral zone win a lot of hockey games and we are terrible at it.
Good teams will use it to build speed collectively or as a choke point defensively.
It's not hard to understand how much more of an effective forecheck the former will have.
It's also not hard to understand how much easier of a zone exit the latter will have.
I've described our neutral zone as a runway or a highway on plenty of occasions over these past few seasons.
Good hockey starts with contesting/owning ice there and it will make the other issues easier to deal with.
Good defense as well as good offense starts in the neutral zone.
Check out just how many dangerous plays are the result of a turnovers in between or just over the blue lines.
Playing the neutral zone properly will result in having more time to execute on either side of the puck.
Fractions of seconds are huge in the NHL.
They give up the walls/point and don't forecheck and we don't know why.
