Ducky10
Searching for Mark Scheifele
- Nov 14, 2014
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The Jets have had their lunch eaten the past two games by teams playing an overload in the D zone. The premise behind playing any kind of m2m, whether it's a strict one or a hybrid, is to put constant pressure on the puck to create turnovers and quick transition. The issue the Jets have had with it last year and so far this year, is having too many slower D men who can't keep up with that system and who don't have the ability to get them into transition fast enough when turnovers do happen. They also seem to be lost positioning wise once they've been forced into a number of switches, which also hampers their transition game.The type of defensive zone coverage taught by Maurice/Huddy has been discussed a bit here over the years - as there has always been noticeable breakdowns. Some still believe that we use a basic man2man , while many (including myself) believe it is a hybrid. This means the D and C play man2man below the dots, with the forwards playing a loose zone between the dots and the blueline. If it is a hybrid, the D should not chase their man above the dots but rather release him to the forward. So in my mind , this was a breakdown by Morrissey, as you suggest.
If the coaches are in fact teaching a basic man2man, with all the rotation necessary as identified by Surixon, I could see two fundamental problems, Firstly, high danger scoring chances-against would go up as the rotation would lead directly to mismatches (ie the forward rotating down to netfront and having to box out or tie up the stick of an attacker-something that he has probably never done ). And secondly, after we regained puck possession, a structured quick breakout and transition would be seriously hindered ( our players starting from something quite different than their normal positions).
It is noteworthy that problems occured with our previous roster and continue with our current weakened roster - so I conclude the root cause rests with the coaching itself and not so much the players.
At the end of the day the Jets real D scheme is to not play D at all. Hard back pressure, tight gaps, quick retrieval and either skate it out or move it up quickly. Haven't seen it consistently since 2017-18.