GDT: Devils at Canes, 3/9 7:00PM

[geehaad]

Let's not confuse what the Hurricanes are doing in these 3rd periods as "prevent defense". I've seen Mo's prevent defense, and this doesn't look anything like it. And when you have Jeff Skinner and Eric Staal on the two lines you count late in games, it's not hard to understand why it looks nothing like a prevent defense.

 

[ONO94]

I thought the one on Francis was borderline, not overly dirty but definitely not a clean play IMO. The one on Willis, as ****** as it is to say it, John's phrase "that's hockey baby" is spot on for that one.

I actually see them as almost the opposite--I thought the Francis hit, while maybe a bit over the top, was what you should expect at playoff time. Stevens came in almost standing straight up and Ronnie was bending into the hit--just bad luck. The Willis hit came with under 20 seconds left in a 2-0 game, on a player coming off a check by another Devil, outside of the blueline. I see the hit as intentionally high and designed to contact the head (see how high Stevens has his hands). Stevens easily could have destroyed Willis without going up that high--or he could have just taken the puck away to ice the game if he wished.

 

[caniac247]

Let's not confuse what the Hurricanes are doing in these 3rd periods as "prevent defense". I've seen Mo's prevent defense, and this doesn't look anything like it. And when you have Jeff Skinner and Eric Staal on the two lines you count late in games, it's not hard to understand why it looks nothing like a prevent defense.

To add to this. At the STH party yesterday, Muller addressed the fans and took some questions. Someone asked about the 3rd period meltdown and his response was along these lines:

We have a very young team, and only a few have experienced playoff hockey. Here you had a team who just went to the finals, so they are going to make that push. After the 2nd goal, I could see in the younger faces that they were panicking. So I called the time out to tell them that they just experienced what it's like to be in a playoff game, calm down, and get back to your game.

To me, it seemed Muller was trying to get across that we do have a young team. So although it looks as though they are sitting on a lead, it's a learning process that you can't sit back and watch and you can't panic if the other team makes that push.