McDavid with a horrendous back-check

[Telos]

One could question McDavid's compete in a lot of ways but I feel this is a week example. He wasn't going to catch him and it wasn't even his guy, there was already someone back checking on him.

 

[Marioesque]

You may find this as a surprise but McDavid rarely knows how to back check

But in his case we're supposed to focus solely on his strengths and not notice the weaknesses.

 

[SenzZen]

 

[jiitu]

One could question McDavid's compete in a lot of ways but I feel this is a week example. He wasn't going to catch him and it wasn't even his guy, there was already someone back checking on him.

Bad example?

At the moment of block, he is at same level and with same speed (zero) with WK. Exactly the first reaction tells it all: Bit going toward deflected puck, but not really. Just letting WK to go.

Resposible players react without thinking on deflected puck and hardly accelerating opponent right next to him. Immedistely, naturally. After couple of steps they might look that "ok, there are the other guys handling it" and let it go.

But the very first, natural reaction of McD was let it go. And only then it was too late. His natural mindset is NOT to react hard on opponent going toward McD's own net with hard acceleration. Its the first 0.5 s natural reaction that tells it all.

And so does the results and stats. Year after year.

 

[hotcabbagesoup]

Bad example?

At the moment of block, he is at same level and with same speed (zero) with WK. Exactly the first reaction tells it all: Bit going toward deflected puck, but not really. Just letting WK to go.

Resposible players react without thinking on deflected puck and hardly accelerating opponent right next to him. Immedistely, naturally. After couple of steps they might look that "ok, there are the other guys handling it" and let it go.

But the very first, natural reaction of McD was let it go. And only thennit was too late. Its the first 0.5 s natural reaction that twlls it all.

And so does the results and stats. Year after year.

And McDavid is one of the fastest skaters in the league. He can definitely get back on defense but he takes such a weird route. He's gotta get inside position on Karlsson.

 

[DingerMcSlapshot]

MacDavid is allergic to back checking.

 

[MarkusNaslund19]

f*** there's a lot of nonsense in here, it's like hfboards is completely without the ability to offer nuanced takes. Perhaps it's because every thread title is "Was this the best/worst/most medium thing in the history of the planet?" which only leads to polarized takes.

This only accelerates with superstars (old timers will remember we had to quarantine a thread specifically about Ovie and Crosby for a couple of years because everything became this awful pissing contest). Haters will say dipshit stuff to be contrarian, and then defenders will overreact and become angry against any and every criticism and around and around we go.

If you have played the game, you have to understand there is some nuance here.

First, is McDavid the most culpable player here? Unequivocally no. He gives Barrie a nice easy pass with a lot of space and Barrie buries it into Smith's shin pads. Barrie is the high man, so he is the first man back but for some reason he is skating like an old man here. The Barrie I know is a good skater so I'm curious whether he was exhausted here. If so, that opens a litany of other questions like why is he so tired 30 seconds into a pp and if he is tired, why not play Bouchard there for a shift?

So some of those who are defending McDavid are rightfully saying, "Barrie set himself on fire and you're blaming McDavid for not commandeering a hose like that was the biggest problem".

Further, there is some truth to the idea that when there is an even man situation, on the backcheck, you take a look over your shoulder and try to pick up a trailer instead of overplaying the puck carrier.

However, The fact that they are on the PP means that you should outnumber your opponents wherever the puck is. In the offensive zone that means creating little 2 on 1s and 3 on 2s so that the puck carrier always has more options than the D can cover.

On the back check, particularly on a breakaway, it's just not really good enough to say, "Meh, they'll catch him". You have to understand, the great two way players put effort into situations that might only matter 2 out of 10 times. The fact that turned into a 2-on-0 and McDavid didn't backcheck is a terrible look, especially for a captain. Because you should be busting your ass in case there are 3 rebounds and you managed to get there before they tapped the 4th one in. People who are saying that McDavid is not showing Stanley cup levels of effort are entirely accurate. It's not acceptable and I wouldn't be happy to see a peewee kid lollygag back because they don't want to 'waste' effort in case the breakaway is a goal anyway.

So what does this mean?

Unfortunately for Oilers fans, I think it means that McDavid has lost belief in the team as it is currently constructed.

I'm not going to go all fatalistic and say he will demand a trade, etc. But when a leader stops showing that level of effort, when they are only working hard enough to be able to defensibly say "I had my man", it points to a bad culture.

We saw it with J.T. Miller last year. Our dressing room was broken, and he had a number of plays where if it wasn't high percentage, he would just quit. He didn't trust his teammates, he was resentful of the player who had made the mistake, etc. It's a bad look.

The Oilers dearly need to clean out their nepotistic front office and bring someone in with a clear and coherent vision that McDavid can see and get behind, because even a superstar can start to seem checked out.

So was McDavid even close to the most culpable player on this player? No.

Was it a bad look and a bad sign for his buy in to the franchise as it is currently constructed. It was, and if they don't act decisively, they are going to lose him emotionally.

 

[BruinsFan37]

McDavid has developed/earned a reputation for poor defensive effort, but this is not the best example of it.

 

[The Jones Zone]

 

[Selyanin]

Evgeny Malkin on line 2 for you.

Evgeni Malkin's Top 100 Snub Is a Damn Travesty

Patrick Kane over Iginla, Thornton and St.Louis as well. To me that seems more like overating Cup wins than anything else.

 

[PuckG]

One might think McDavid's lack of effort here and his recent struggles mean he might just want to move on from the Oilers.

But that was about the usual amount of effort McDavid puts into playing defense on any given night.

Just over the weekend, Connor stated he wanted to win as an Oiler and in Edmonton. One doesn't need to think anything when the man states it himself. Just like when a woman says no, it means no.

 

[jepari88]

One could question McDavid's compete in a lot of ways but I feel this is a week example. He wasn't going to catch him and it wasn't even his guy, there was already someone back checking on him.

There used to be a saying that went something like: "You play until the whistle". Maybe that's old news nowadays, but there are a lot of reasons why you should always try. Does this mean he's awful? No, but when you're the highest paid player on your team and you're the captain, then maybe you shouldn't give up that easily. Meh, life goes on.

 

[Midnight Judges]

Patrick Kane over Iginla, Thornton and St.Louis as well. To me that seems more like overating Cup wins than anything else.

Malkin already had two cups by then.

Leaving Malkin out was inexplicable.

 

[EdmFlyersfan]

McDavid's lack of being a team player and playing defense is causing a negative ripple effect in the locker-room.

Let's put this in a Dr. Seuss style breakdown

McDavid is Captain
Captain say no no to backcheck
Teamates see Captain
Teamates say no no to backcheck
Coach see Captain
Backcheck Captain, Backcheck!
Captain says no no Coach
Coach wants to keep job, job, job!
Coach blames goalie
Goalie says help!
Fans say help!
Someone help, someone help!

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

Its really not even that bad

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

I love people roasting mcdavid on a hockey forum I actually find it embarassing for them. Some of these posts are unreal

 

[CanadianPantherFan]

Isn't Drai just as bad? When Oilers played Florida earlier, it was easy to see they only play hard when they have the puck. Is this new or have they always given low effort on defense?

EDIT: Now that the whole play was posted, it's not great, but he likely doesn't catch up to the puck enough to make a difference anyway.

They always have. McDavid hasn’t got better, maybe worse. Drai has gifted body to be heavy on bodies and sticks, chooses not to use it. Drai is player I’m drawn to naturally but lack of 200 ft game is starting to bother me.

 

[Larry Hanson]

Draisaitl does the lazy defensive play all the time.
Watch here 2:58 mark
Hard to even describe how little he cared on this play, just waiting for the puck to go the other way.


Last night on the Hawks 4th goal he wanders back into the defensive zone does a little loop, doesn't even try to take a man or help in any way then just stands there while the puck goes in.
6:54 mark

 

[OneSniffTwoSniff]

Surprise surprise, the golden boy who puts up the points, not the W's can't play defense for shit. Your a center my guy atleast make an effort

This guy is not better than Kucherov never was never will, second best player in the world sure.

 

[BFLO]

Do all the people saying McDavid was never going to catch Karlsson... Are you blind? Do you not see that McDavid and Karlsson were standing directly next to each other when the puck got blocked?

Smith was the one with the breakaway. Karlsson hustled back to turn Smith's 1 on 0 into a 2 on 0. McDavid coasted back.

McDavid was never going to catch Smith, but he could have easily gone with Karlsson and denied the 2 on 0 and forced Smith to shoot it.

I swear people watch replays with their eyes closed on this site and then just post whatever their pre-conceived bias is.

 

[Buff15Sabres]

I guess it's bad optics that McDavid was coasting, but if we're assigning blame for this goal I'd have to say it's 99% on Barrie, 1% on the goalie, and exactly 0% on McDavid.

Barrie takes a good pass and gets his shot blocked, and then proceeds to skate like he's in molasses to badly lose a 1v1 with Karlson.

McDavid was doing what he was supposed to - guard against a trailer. His job is not to assume that Barrie will biff his shot and then get beaten like a red headed step child in the subsequent race down the ice.

 

[kcin94]

There used to be a saying that went something like: "You play until the whistle". Maybe that's old news nowadays, but there are a lot of reasons why you should always try. Does this mean he's awful? No, but when you're the highest paid player on your team and you're the captain, then maybe you shouldn't give up that easily. Meh, life goes on.

Is this Timbits hockey where everyone converges on the puck?

It was a 2-0. The two closest Oilers were going towards the two Vegas players, the third closest Oiler doesn't also go towards the puck. He goes to the high slot to pick up a 3rd guy or clear a rebound.

Which is exactly where McDavid was.

You can argue his reaction time was slow when the turnover happened, but after that there was nothing he was accomplishing racing towards the net on a play he couldn't stop.

 

[Rabid Ranger]

I love people roasting mcdavid on a hockey forum I actually find it embarassing for them. Some of these posts are unreal

Where else would he be roasted? Twitter?

 

[jepari88]

Is this Timbits hockey where everyone converges on the puck?

It was a 2-0. The two closest Oilers were going towards the two Vegas players, the third closest Oiler doesn't also go towards the puck. He goes to the high slot to pick up a 3rd guy or clear a rebound.

Which is exactly where McDavid was.

You can argue his reaction time was slow when the turnover happened, but after that there was nothing he was accomplishing racing towards the net on a play he couldn't stop.

Giving up on plays is just bad leadership is all I'm saying. He's the captain and face of the franchise. The team's f***ed and part of the blame lies on the captain.

 

[Rabid Ranger]

McDavid is going to have to make the Yzerman/Modano transformation.