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McDavid with a horrendous back-check

Lazlo Hollyfeld said:
Exactly.

It's not a good look when a clip is posted on hockey forums but that's about it. There's two Oilers racing back. McDavid's job is to pick up any trailers. not skate to the net full speed to be the third Oiler trailing behind the two Knights so it looks like he's hustling when posted on hfboards.
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We talk about picking your spots in different contexts, I don’t think every star has to be a perfect defensive player but a star and especially a captain needs to know when to put that extra defensive effort in.


The other team was on the penalty kill. The only two of their guys attacking were the first two, and McDavid had another two teammates. He’s way faster and one of the best at getting the first step or 5 on somebody, and if you look at that last angle even gliding he was pretty close to the play. He could have and should have put in effort to get back, especially knowing his goalie and that the defender was Barrie of all people.


Power plays don’t typically give up many even strength rushes, certainly not if someone else can get there. You have an extra guy, that’s a big part of power plays not getting scored on despite teams often no putting good defensive players out there. If nothing else then as the Captain of a team that seems to give up regularly, maybe putting in the extra effort is a good thing. I really do believe he could have at least somewhat disrupted, even hook him if nothing else as a last ditch. You don’t want players giving up and accepting that loser attitude.


Ovechkin during the Caps run back checking at the right times and disrupting plays, and blocking some big shots when his team gave up a rush chances or was being held in their zone wasn’t him becoming a dominant two way player but a leader showing full dedication. Didn’t matter that was the weakest team the Caps had iced in years and nobody was calling them a serious contender that year.

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That’s an even strength player starting well behind a rush who didn’t give up, notice the 4th Knight coming back as well. They have a secure lead and he’s still maximum effort. The oilers were only down one goal and McDavid failed an opportunity to show his team what effort looks like. They gave up after the first period.
 
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Honestly it's less about the effort and more about positional awareness and anticipation. If had anticipated as well as Karlsson, he would have been able to beat him down the ice.

If the roles were reversed, I guarantee McDavid gets the jump on Karlsson, so it's not like he doesn't have that ability to read the play. He just wasn't engaged enough IMO. This is typical of many offensive stars who anticipate well when their mind is focused on offense. But it's something they have to consciously focus on defensively, and it didn't look like McDavid was focused/engaged enough.
 
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BAdvocate said:
Can anyone corroborate my memories of Stevie Y being rumored to want out of Detroit back in the day due to Bowman forcing him to learn how to be a 2-way player?
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That never happened. The opposite happened. Bowman sat Yzerman down and said your stats are going to go down but the team would do better. Bowman has credited the Red Wings success under his coaching to the fact that Yzerman bought in and wanted to be a winner.
 
Why would he backcheck there? There's literally zero chance he catches up, and if he hangs back and the puck makes its way back out again he's in position to rush the other way.
 
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FerrisRox said:
That never happened. The opposite happened. Bowman sat Yzerman down and said your stats are going to go down but the team would do better. Bowman has credited the Red Wings success under his coaching to the fact that Yzerman bought in and wanted to be a winner.
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to be fair it was strongly rumored that Yzerman was going to Ottawa for Yashin.
 
Tad Mikowsky said:
to be fair it was strongly rumored that Yzerman was going to Ottawa for Yashin.
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Oh, I remember. There were also rumours, during the 1995 lockout, that there were extensive talks with the Canadiens with Mathieu Schneider the principal piece going back in a 2-for-1 trade. Before that, there had been rumours of the Wings offering up Yzerman for Lafontaine when the Islanders moved him.

But none of that changes the fact that there were never any reports of Yzerman asking to be moved or being disgruntled with Bowman. Yzerman was, however, clearly angry to hear his name in trade rumours in 1995 and called out the organization for not being "adult" enough to sit down and have a conversation with him.
 
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UrbanImpact said:
What?

Nothing Mcdavid could do?

He was parallel and right beside Karlsson when the shot got blocked. Please stop protecting him and hold Mcdavid accountable for a terrible effort at a crucial part of the game.
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What a delusional f***ing take LMAO. This thread is embarrassing. People reslly tryna somehow blame Mcdavid for being a lazy 3rd backchecker when the puck is already past centre ice. These Mcdavid haters are clowns comical
 
WhiskeyYerTheDevils said:
Honestly it's less about the effort and more about positional awareness and anticipation. If had anticipated as well as Karlsson, he would have been able to beat him down the ice.

If the roles were reversed, I guarantee McDavid gets the jump on Karlsson, so it's not like he doesn't have that ability to read the play. He just wasn't engaged enough IMO. This is typical of many offensive stars who anticipate well when their mind is focused on offense. But it's something they have to consciously focus on defensively, and it didn't look like McDavid was focused/engaged enough.
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Yep. Karlsson started moving up ice sooner from the same "latitude" as McDavid. But you can see the hesitation from 97 as his first instinct is putting himself in a scoring position vs. preventing the other team to do so which can take a while to break that habit.
 
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If you honestly think this is a good example of Mcdavid playing poor defence just say you don't know hockey and move on lmao.
 
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