i honestly think the slow decline from last year’s ASG to now isn’t whatever happened to petey, or locker room bad vibes, or PDO, or us playing a huge chunk of the season with only one guy capable of making an outlet pass. i think it really has to be a system issue.
we started last year with a new system that no one had a counter for, and then one by one every team in the league slowly figured us out. hard pressure every dman not named hughes the minute they get the puck in their own end while going man on man on the forwards. instant soft clear with the puck delivered to you in the neutral zone. and we have never come up with a new breakout plan.
ditto in the o-zone. early on, there was a rush where we broke into the offensive zone and the puck carrier (boeser?) cuts in front of hoglander standing still while drawing two defenders, so he drop passes to hoglander. hog goes immediately from not moving to skating as fast as he can to try to create some room, which of course he can’t. an extreme version of the alternating kobe iso-ball that is basically our entire offensive zone strategy when the puck isn’t on one of hughes or garland’s stick. no one is moving their feet, no one is even gliding into open areas. the defending team clocks where you are on the zone entry and you’re still just standing there 20 seconds later.
that said, great period. a good enough team that we can compete with a broken system. now if that could change...