Offense

[One Horse Town]

Game after game this team is very hard to watch. They have absolutely no offensive flow. So the questions are?

• Is it because of too many new players and time needed to get used to each other
• Are new players not as good as the ones who left
• Is the coaching system in place
• Or all of the above

I'll be at the game tomorrow, so I hope they break out.

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[Snuggs]

Shayne Gostisbehere loss has a bigger ripple than anyone imaged.

His 19 minutes a night are being replaced with bullcrap from Holl/Petry/Maata/Gustavsson.

I don't think the forward group is to blame. The defense can't make crisp passes. Idk where to look but a top 4 defender is needed baddly imo.

 

[One Horse Town]

Shayne Gostisbehere loss has a bigger ripple than anyone imaged.

His 19 minutes a night are being replaced with bullcrap from Holl/Petry/Maata/Gustavsson.

I don't think the forward group is to blame. The defense can't make crisp passes.

I didn't want him to leave.

 

[Pavels Dog]

I like giving a team at least 10 games to make an informed take on what trajectory the season is taking.
So far we've faced NYR and NYI, who are both top 5 in goals against. Nashville despite their slow start I also consider a strong team.

The next 3 are against NJD, BUF and EDM, who are all in the lower half of the league in goals against. If the offense struggles consistently against those teams I think there's reason to be concerned it'll be a season-long trend.

However, the idea was always to be better defensively this season to make up for some lost offense. The exact balance of that trade-off is yet to be fully seen.

 

[JediOrderPizza]

It cannot be new people because the top six only has one new guy. Even Dcat-Larkin-Ray are not getting pressure. The new guys in Kasper and Berggren look fine. Even tho they have scored in the last couple games Tarasenko and Kane just look awful 5on5.

There gonna have to score more than 1 against the Devils I think.

 

[norrisnick]

Shayne Gostisbehere loss has a bigger ripple than anyone imaged.

His 19 minutes a night are being replaced with bullcrap from Holl/Petry/Maata/Gustavsson.

I don't think the forward group is to blame. The defense can't make crisp passes. Idk where to look but a top 4 defender is needed baddly imo.

At even strength Gostisbehere had the lowest on-ice GF/60 of any of our defensemen last season. The only regular skater with a lower GF/60 was Joe Veleno.

 

[raymond23]

Top guys haven’t been good enough. Larkin in particular

Sprong and Ghost were about 100 points that we didn’t really replace

 

[newfy]

They were a top offensive team in the league last year. Lets let the water find its level before we start worrying about it. They've played the rangers and preds twice, both of whom are what I would call top ~10 defensive teams in the league with great goaltending each. The Isles I would call top half of the league defensively too

This early they also havent had a lot of time on the PP at all, which will balance out over the season when they play some weaker teams.

The wings are .500 with a really tough schedule to start the year, the sky isn't falling

 

[Henkka]

Game after game this team is very hard to watch. They have absolutely no offensive flow. So the questions are?

• Is it because of too many new players and time needed to get used to each other
• Are new players not as good as the ones who left
• Is the coaching system in place
• Or all of the above

I'll be at the game tomorrow, so I hope they break out.

Too many new players, when we have same 8 forwards from last season at Top9...?

That's not the answer. I don't buy this theory at all, last season we had much more player changes.

As for now, it's same players we have used to be something else, are suddenly struggling. Like, even Larkin looks bad.

Imo, we are learning a new system currently, and that takes time to gel. Usually it takes ~20 games.

That could kill a season, though but... it has to be done at some point. We have to be better defensively, not a mad-offensive team like at last season.

Imo, the long-term plan has always been defensively great team and almost impossible to score against, when adding monster Cossa in the net. Like that's the ultimate goal, call it an Yzer-plan or not.

At first, since 2019 they drafted defence-heavy, sizeheavy great skating defencemen (Mo, Ed, Wallinder etc.) then went after monster goalie. And then started drafting more forward-heavy.

Same should go with systems, you build now a great defensive structure, to become that nightmarely good defensive team and the offence will come last.

 

[HisNoodliness]

I think the coaching/systems are most at fault. In that Islanders game we didn't even try to gain the zone unless we had an odd-man rush. We either chipped it off the boards immediately upon gaining possession or skated it to center and dumped it. When the whole team is doing that, it's coaching.

In tie games, or games where we're trailing, the offense has looked better. Maybe the results haven't been there, but the opportunities have. When we have a lead, we go pure 100% turtle. I can't believe a modern coaching staff would promote this as it has been shown time and again to be the least effective defensive system in hockey. It's just cowardice and fear of accountability that makes coaches use it. If we try that against anyone other than the New York "what's a goal" Islanders, we should lose nearly every time.

 

[Indrid Cold]

Isn't this Yzerman's 'no superstar, defense first, boring play' system? This is what he said he imagined the team would be.

 

[Oddbob]

Isn't this Yzerman's 'no superstar, defense first, boring play' system? This is what he said he imagined the team would be.

I think that is Lalonde's vision. Lalonde was the guy who wanted to reign in Kucherov on Tampa Bay to be better defensively. I honestly think Lalonde wants low skill crap hockey regardless the talent on the team, which is a shit style.

All of our defencemen do the chip it around the boards to no one, just cause it keeps it away from the other team, who usually get it anyway after said chip around to no one. Has to be what the coach wants as I don't recall Seider doing that in his first season. I think Lalonde and or Boughner are the issue with are defence along with the low grade players.

That said, I honestly don't even know what our system is. Honest thought and question!

 

[theYman]

Ghost had 4 goals already and 5 pts. So yeah why didn't we get him signed is beyond me. I wanted him resigned. He's better than Gus. Even his defense is and that's not saying a whole lot.

 

[Geezer WC]

All of our defencemen do the chip it around the boards to no one, just cause it keeps it away from the other team, who usually get it anyway after said chip around to no one.

The question is.. Where the hell are the guys on wing?

 

[Henkka]

I think that is Lalonde's vision. Lalonde was the guy who wanted to reign in Kucherov on Tampa Bay to be better defensively. I honestly think Lalonde wants low skill crap hockey regardless the talent on the team, which is a shit style.

Nope. He will want defensive hockey with skill players, like Scotty Bowman did.

That's what turned Tampa to Champion, when Lalonde system was brought in by Cooper. Lunatic offense turned to balanced defence.

 

[norrisnick]

Nope. He will want defensive hockey with skill players, like Scotty Bowman did.

That's what turned Tampa to Champion, when Lalonde system was brought in by Cooper. Lunatic offense turned to balanced defence.

The AF am I reading here? Are you retconning Tampa's success to be attributed to Lalonde?

 

[Oddbob]

Nope. He will want defensive hockey with skill players, like Scotty Bowman did.

That's what turned Tampa to Champion, when Lalonde system was brought in by Cooper. Lunatic offense turned to balanced defence.

Yeah, don't think so.

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

Raymond is playing well overall but has zero goals in 6 games. Kane, 1 goal in 6 games. All the lower line guys who would be secondary scoring have donuts.

Part of it is they've played some very good teams to start the season. Hopefully things will start to click. But I still think this team is mentally fragile. They play so confidently after scoring a goal it's like "where have you guys been??"

 

[RedHawkDown]

It’s coaching and also PDO. The wings last year had the 7th highest PDO and specifically the 2nd highest shooting % in the league, and this statistical anomaly was logically not going to happen again this year. A lot of their scoring was luck based- it should be clear to people that the roster isn’t constructed of players that are talented enough snipers to sport the 2nd highest shooting % in the NHL.

The hope is they can offset the loss in scoring with better defense.

 

[lilidk]

All blames should be on Yzerman. Every year he brings couple overpaid defansman , as a result we have 8 of them and outside of Ed and Seider all of them should be playing sheltered third pair. Goaltender situation is also crazy. How many of them do we need? Mazur was NHL ready