Because I am very sick and very bored here are some breakdowns from this game:
Here's a situation that we see often from limited D-men that struggle with processing the play quickly and/or can't skate that well. The guy on his right is taken out of the play, Juulsen peeks over to his left to see that the trailer is being covered by a back-checker. In this case he has the green light to step up and close the space on Zary who has just picked up the puck pretty much at the blueline. But instead, Juulsen backs off and gives Zary a clean look from almost the faceoff dot.
View attachment 954373
Here is an example of the defensive switches / rotations issues I've been talking about. This one's a bit awkward as Debrusk was covering for Miller at center because Debrusk was the first back-checker. Debrusk at this point is in no man's land, and needs to close the gap on the point.
View attachment 954374
Miller then inexplicably points to Debrusk to tell him to go across the zone to cover the other point, but then also doesn't close out on Coronato. Instead he backs off in an attempt to block the shot and Debrusk is still in no man's land covering nobody. Coronato rings it off the crossbar with a clean shot from the high slot.
Juulsen falling asleep on the blueline to allow the breakway, then overcommiting to Soucy's side and basically just getting in Soucy's way which made it difficult for him to clear the puck as well. Juulsen should be somewhere in the red circle defending the crease but instead he ends up in his opposite corner staring at an empty net tap in.
View attachment 954375
Here's another example of a D-man not being able to process the play. Desharnais sees that Blueger has what would usually be his guy in the corner, he sees Brannstrom has his guy in the opposite corner, and the wingers are in position covering their point man. That means there's one guy left, and with all 4 corners covered that typically means the 5th guy is in the middle. But he's too uncomfortable leaving his post beside the net, and it leads to a clean shot dead in the slot.
View attachment 954378
On the very same rebound Desharnais has a decent amount of time and space to make a play with the puck but he bobbles it and has to look down at it to settle it, and then just rifles it high off the glass and out. This shift was a prime example of how not having enough legit NHL D-men cripples the team. Just way too often the reads are wrong defensively and the ability to transition cleanly is nonexistent.
View attachment 954379
And here's the play that leads to the game-winner. Joshua should easily be able to recognize that both his linemates are already fore-checking, so it's his responsibility to the first forward back. Instead he just stands there, doesn't intercept the pass or "chip a body" and the Flames have a clear 3-on-2. It's also fair to say that both Garland and Suter were half-assing this fore-check and Suter probably should have backed off instead of attempting to pressure up ice.
View attachment 954381
