I really disagree with this assessment.
Kyrou was the first man in on the forecheck. He was looking for a pass from Texier in the neutral zone, but as soon as Texier dumped it instead Kyrou got on his horse to pressure Woll (who left the net to play the puck). His pressure on Woll forced a pass to the D man who was already being pressured by Buch instead of allowing Woll to find a better play.
The rushed D man made a touch pass to Matthews. Kyrou made a stick check on Matthews, causing him to fumble the puck back toward the corner, where Buch engaged in a board battle. Kyrou initially went to the side boards to protect against an outlet, but then chased into the corner once he saw Buch had prevented a clearing attempt. He got there as Buch caused a puck to squirt out and made the great pass.
That is a hell of a lot more puck hounding than a flyby on the puck carrier. Buch's board battle was the most impressive part of the turnover, but Kyrou did exactly what you want the F1 doing on that play. He disrupted multiple players and took away multiple outlet options that led to Buch having the opportunity to engage in that board battle. Kyrou is never going to be the guy that wins a bunch of board battles. That's not his game, but that is also not the end-all-be-all of being a puck hound. Moving your feet, rushing the puck handler into mistakes, clogging lanes, disrupting sticks, and supporting the teammate engaging in the board battle are all part of being a puck hound.
Ok, now that I'm seeing the clip instead of going off memory I'm going to have to pushback on your pushback
. I don't think I'd call what Kyrou did "hounding," I'd call it a fairly regular forecheck. Kyrou did what any reasonable NHL player would do originally, which is skate forward towards the puck after a dump in. Here he is the moment Woll makes his pass:
That's not exactly in-your-face forechecking now is it? He's where he's supposed to be, but this is a pretty common look on a forecheck for any team. McCabe (The real goat, more on that later) puts himself in a TERRIBLE position to receive the puck from Woll turning his back towards Buch and getting kinda handcuffed by the pass:
Buch is in an aggressive position here, and with the combo of the bad positioning from McCabe accepting the pass as well as the pressure applied by Buch, McCabe forces a touch pass towards Matthews, who was clearly not prepared at all, here he is with his stick still in the air as the pass comes towards him:
That's terrible fundamentals by Matthews, and b/c he wasn't ready, he doesn't take the pass cleanly at all:
Then Kyrou swoops by and yes, does get a quick stick lift on Matthews, but more in an "ole" manner vs really trying to knock Matthews off the puck. Here is the moment just after the stick lift:
Buch notices that Matthews is in trouble, and reads the play, deciding to apply the initial pressure towards Matthews in the corner. Texier is clearly the high man, which Kyrou should know since he's coming from the weak side of the ice. Now here's the critical time where I think our opinions will diverge:
I can understand what you're saying about Kyrou going towards the wall to break up an outlet. But here's the thing - once he gets to the wall, and sees that Buch is clearly engaging with a distraught Matthews - the smart, hardworking player would cut towards the engagement immediately in an attempt to support Buch. What does Kyrou do?
He literally swoops away and turns his back on the play, giving the Leafs time to support instead of him. Now look at this still shot:
There is almost no way this should be a goal. Kyrou is 100% not in a position to support Buch on this forecheck. Matthews is tying up Buch and McCabe is already MILES ahead of where Kyrou would need to be to prevent a clear. But then McCabe makes his second terrible play of the sequence. by reaching out to poke/pull the puck to himself, instead of taking an extra stride and making a strong play behind the net towards Tanev with the puck:
There is no universe where a coach isn't looking at this film and thinking about all the ways he wants to scream McCabe's head off. McCabe should 100% take control of this puck, and the only reason he doesn't is thanks to Buch timing an incredible stick lift. Again, at this juncture Kyrou is still above the faceoff dot, having turned his back on the play moments before:
Buch is now fighting against two Leafs players which Kyrou is still above the faceoff dot. Here are two more pictures showing Buch engaged with Leafs players which Kyrou is not engaged:
Then, in a final act of desperation to keep the play alive and not lose the puck, Buch shovels the puck into space behind McCabe. He has no idea where Kyrou is, as he's been looking either down at the puck or into the boards for the last 5 seconds, he's literally just hoping to keep the play alive:
Kryou, who has done almost literally zero work up to this point, glides in and makes a nice backhand pass into the slot area, which Texier wires past Woll:
I'm sorry, but there was almost nothing about this play that I would credit Kyrou's work ethic on. McCabe makes multiple terrible plays, Matthews shows poor fundamentals, and Buch shows incredible work ethic and IQ. Kyrou almost literally barely factors into the play at all outside of doing what I would consider to be the bare minimum I would expect an NHL forechecker to do.
Again, I would like to reiterate that I like Kyrou, and thinks he gets far too much hate on these boards, but this play is a poor example of him "Working Hard" or "Not Swooping."
