Post-Game Talk: No defense for this loss

[Ducky10]

I still scratch my head that he keeps playing these guys big minutes when one of the hallmarks of his system or so he says is tight gaps through the nz and entering our end. As mentioned both are truly awful at it and they are playing big minutes at ES this year.....

In order to have tight gaps coming back into our end, you need to keep a tight gap up the ice. Neither of them are very good at that, both are slow puck movers and Myers is a puck lugger. If you notice when the Jets happen to lose possession above the circles in the offensive zone, Myers and Chiarot are nowhere to be found, Kuli not much either. Morrissey, Trouba and Buff are far, far better at following tight to the play up ice and having their gap set in the neutral zone if the puck gets turned over. Niku showed he can do that at times the last couple of games as well.

That inability to maintain that gap is exacerbated by poor back pressure from the forwards, most noticeably Scheifele and Wheeler. In fact our F3 play overall has been pretty poor by last year's standards.

 

[surixon]

In order to have tight gaps coming back into our end, you need to keep a tight gap up the ice. Neither of them are very good at that, both are slow puck movers and Myers is a puck lugger. If you notice when the Jets happen to lose possession above the circles in the offensive zone, Myers and Chiarot are nowhere to be found, Kuli not much either. Morrissey, Trouba and Buff are far, far better at following tight to the play up ice and having their gap set in the neutral zone if the puck gets turned over. Niku showed he can do that at times the last couple of games as well.

That inability to maintain that gap is exacerbated by poor back pressure from the forwards, most noticeably Scheifele and Wheeler. In fact our F3 play overall has been pretty poor by last year's standards.

Agreed, our forwards have not been good tracking back to give the defense more confidence to GAP up.