Whatever dude you are clueless. Losing our defensive guys will lead to breakdowns in the defensive zone and stop a few breakouts but please to sit there like you know it all cause you don't.
Even with Mitchell and Greene this team did not score on the rush much as they get very few odd man rushes.
Thanks for The hockey 101 lesson, the class was as good as Lewis' goals this year.
I am sorry winger but if that is what you think our D does and can't see that our entire system is predicated by the defencive play of our entire team then you are missing the mechanics of how the Kings play and how we have played to win the cup. You are also missing the wrinkles to the system that DS put in place.
Our D owes its prowess in its own end to the checking system (low D rotation cycle of our forwards allows for our D to join in a 4-1-G or 3-2-G rotation below the dots which not only allows for us to always have a player ready to break out of our zone but also allows coverage and separation in front of the net).
That said, our D's job in its own end in so far as moving the puck up the ice or clearing the zone in a manner that either allows time for our forwards to establish a clear exit from our zone and into the neutral then O zone is only part of their importance to our overall offence.
Our system relies largely on the ability to slow our opponents while picking key gaps for our players to find speed into open pockets. Without going all into X's and O's DS uses a system that a coach that I used to play for developed years ago and was perfected by a few coaches along the way (see NJ and Det's successes for examples).
So I guess what I am saying is that our D is a system and missing the players that we are missing isn't as simple as just plugging in another similar player and moving on. I mean, these are individual players with individual talents and each having to learn a specific system (which takes time and practice to learn, two things that our newest players haven't received) that is difficult to do.
If it were a matter of just putting in a stay at home D where we are missing a stay at home D then everyone would be perfectly equal every year. That just isn't the case.
Ron is right here, there is allot more going on then you seem to think winger. I apologize if I am making assumptions about your position here but I can only base my response on what you have said. I look forward to learning where I am missing out on your position.
That said, Ron and I don't always agree but the guy knows his hockey (though we do agree on many things) cold. I am not saying you don't, just that Ron does and I think he is very right here.
