Biggest issue for this team is the breakout. It’s a personnel problem on the defense. Here are the guys who play the most.
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The core challenge is that the team expects Doughty to be an elite breakout passer in order to make up for guys 2-5 who are average to below average. But we can see that Doughty isn’t good enough to overcome the lack of execution from the rest of the group.
You can look at Clarke and Spence and think you have an answer. The breakdown in that thinking occurs when you try to decide what to change higher in the lineup.
They have too many defenseman who are being paid significant dollars that all play the same game. It doesn’t make sense to pay Anderson, Gavrikov, and Roy all at the same time. Especially if Doughty can’t make up the difference when it comes to moving the puck.
And I think the team knows this. In Danault’s post game comments he said the breakout was where things needed to improve in the defensive zone. Not the coverage, which were the glaring mistakes last night.
But Danault pointed to the team needing to move quicker and the forwards needed to help out more. So basically trying to point the finger to the team needing to play better over roster construction. Which, of course, no player would ever do in the heat of the moment.
And when I listen to a lot of the comments from the leadership, he consistent theme is playing a conservative style. Maybe the league is telling the team that doesn’t work if you don’t have the right roster balance to play that way.
And it’s a bit of having too many pieces that don’t fit that mold in certain areas, like at forward. And too few pieces that help provide just the right amount of balance that are ready to play big minutes on the backend.
