News Article: Players Tribune: Beta - Adams Oates

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

Thoughts? A couple excerpts. Do you think some of this should apply to guys like Hoffman, Ryan, and Karlsson?

Making the rink bigger won’t necessarily lead to more scoring because you still have to penetrate. There’s a small but very important difference between possession and penetration. For example: If you look at a five-on-three power play, there’s seems to be a ton of open ice, but it’s still hard to score because the defending team brings their guys in tighter around the goal to close the shooting lanes. The ice could be 10 feet or 1,000 feet wide. It doesn’t matter. What matters is how your skill players manipulate the defenders in that tiny box.

Let’s think about this: Chicago has no problem scoring. Dallas has no problem scoring. Washington has no problem scoring. Why is that? It’s because they’re letting their skill players do what they do best instead of forcing them into a system.

Think about it. We’ve got a guy in Chicago that’s five-foot-nine, 160 pounds, who recently had a 26-game point streak. Why? Because Patrick Kane is an incredibly skilled player, and he also has a coach that doesn’t try to interfere with his game.

And...I know a lot of us get frustrated by this during a game with some of our guys on the boards getting pucks

For example, one of the most underrated skills in the NHL is a player’s ability to pick up pucks coming around the boards. Think of how many times this happens during a game. The defenseman collects the puck behind the net, gets rushed, and has to rim it around to his winger. The problem is, the puck is round. It flutters around at crazy angles. Sometimes it takes a bounce. This is the stuff that’s hard to see on TV, but that players have to deal with 20 or 30 times a game. Players who can control that bouncing puck in stride improve their team’s breakout execution tenfold.

I was never a big Oates guy when he was a coach, I didn't think he did very well. But I really liked this article and it offers a new perspective on the "bigger rinks!" crowd too as well as tackling skill issues. Anyway, I thought it might be a good discussion piece that isn't necessarily so Sens-centric.

Full article: http://www.theplayerstribune.com/adam-oates-nhl-wayne-gretzky-skill-in-hockey/

Click to read more...

 

[Benjamin]

Interesting, for sure.

Kinda funny that he lists Washington as an example considering he failed there while trying to control Ovechkin.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

It was his first head coaching job in the NHL: I think he's smart enough to improve but it takes more than smarts to be a good coach.

Big ice would probably slow the game down and might increasing passing plays, so in a way it might help offense in that an increase in passing could lead to more assists.

 

[aragorn]

I've also notice how crappy the ice is now in a lot of different rinks, the puck just seems to bounce a lot more than I remember in the past. CTC is particularly bad for bouncing pucks & snow build up along the boards.

The problem I have with his comments is that if you don't have the players playing in some system how are they going to know where everyone is suppose to be at any given time on the ice. If everyone is just playing their own way without a structure system it is so much harder to defend as well. OV never did well in the playoffs before & was often criticized for being a one man show. But now that Tortz has brought structure to the team & OV has bought in, the team is playing so much better & they have an opportunity this yr to win a cup.

It drives me crazy when I see Hoffman skating around with the puck "dirty dangling" & it accomplishes nothing, he over does it, doesn't get a shot off & most of the time ends up turning it over to the other team who usually have numbers headed towards our net. It works both ways & most of the time it works better when there is some structure in place. Kane has the luxury of also playing with maybe the games best two way player in the game in Toews & Hossa is not too shabby defensively either. They also have a veteran team whereas Ottawa has a very young team with 7 AHL/rookies playing on the team right now & young players make mistakes. Nor can they be depended on to carry the team or be expected to constantly defend, if the star players are constantly turning the puck over. Young players need structure to learn the game, to play their positions & to develop within a team system.

 

[Benjamin]

I think he means a looser system on the best players only so that the offensive creativity needed to score isn't sucked out. There would still be a system in place.

Unless Im wrong. A team without a system is a bad idea.

 

[YouGotAStuGoing]

I think he means a looser system on the best players only so that the offensive creativity needed to score isn't sucked out. There would still be a system in place.

Unless Im wrong. A team without a system is a bad idea.

Yeah, I took it to mean the same. Let creative players loose. Don't 'rein them in.' But don't let players who don't have that high-end talent and skill just run amok.

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

Yup, that's the same way I took it too. Have a balance between letting your elite skill players play and having a system. And have your lesser skilled players cover up for those skilled guys too. It would be a good role to have since you know what you should be doing out there.

My first thought was what if Chiasson was the same exact player, except he was amazing at stopping the puck at the half boards and controlling it. He would actually become a useful player for us despite a lack of anything else really.

I kinda miss Peter Schaefer.

 

[YouGotAStuGoing]

I kinda miss Peter Schaefer.

Exactly who came to mind for me, too. I'll never forget how amazed I was at that Dallas tip-in-midair goal. If he'd have been unleashed... damn.

 

[Tuna99]

Thoughts? A couple excerpts. Do you think some of this should apply to guys like Hoffman, Ryan, and Karlsson?





And...I know a lot of us get frustrated by this during a game with some of our guys on the boards getting pucks



I was never a big Oates guy when he was a coach, I didn't think he did very well. But I really liked this article and it offers a new perspective on the "bigger rinks!" crowd too as well as tackling skill issues. Anyway, I thought it might be a good discussion piece that isn't necessarily so Sens-centric.

Full article: http://www.theplayerstribune.com/adam-oates-nhl-wayne-gretzky-skill-in-hockey/

Battles along the wall to get pucks out of our zone has been atrocious this year - and Chiasson is really bad at it., Hoffman is also horrible

After watching Hossa for so many years (the best in the game at getting pucks out of the zone) and Alfie who is amazing - seeing guys like Chiasson and Hoffman constantly lose board battles, this is one area where if we replaced these two players we'd reduce our shots on net by 4 per game just by clearing the zone cleanly like good NHl teams do.