They have definitely been better 5v5, compared to last season. It's not even close.
I just see the same issues year after year. I still see major flaws in our approach and consistency.. Does it work against the better teams? Can we win 16 games in the postseason? That's where my doubt lies.
Yeah, the 5v5 argument is a bit too general for my liking.
The issues they're having are more specific and I think, go something like this:
On Offense:
We are generating more shots, but we are not crashing the net. Hunting rebounds, getting dirty, goal mouth goals. Several examples last night of us having possession in the offensive zone and the players without the puck were trying to get open for an east west pass downlow as opposed to positioning themselves for a screen/tip/rebound. We need some second chance goals. We need to get inside the blue paint. Our D and our Fs are not in sync about how to generate 5v5 offense. Shots from teh point with no one in front is a goalie's dream. Too many of our shots are that variety. And I don't really see Foxy or any other D taking those slightly slower shots from the point that are meant for deflections. And far too often the blasts from the point are happening with little to no screens. Pucks are going wide, hitting goalies in the chest and when they do hit the pads, those rebounds without any traffic are being kicked to the corners. The only line that attacked the center of the ice at 5v5 consistently was the Kid Line. And honestly, I thought the 3rd line with Vesey, Goody and Blais was doing an okay job at generating given their general lack of skill.
NZ play
Our counterattack is non-existent. We are ceding too much space in the neutral zone. And thus all of our 5v5 attack starts from behind our own net. We have the skill to be a counterattacking team. And I am starting to wonder if a different 5v5 system ought to be tried where we clog up the neutral zone and counter. Our forwards have not done a great job at creating scoring chances off the cycle. Almost all of our best chances are off the rush. If that's the case, then we need to be a counterattacking team. We could use the extra space counterattacking provides. Right now, our "half-court offense" often creates possession, but generates few high danger chances and NO second chances.
Gosh, could you imagine, being a trap team with Shesty in net? Counter attacking with our offense? Tiring out other teams who can't get through the NZ against us? I don't care if it's boring. Especially since we have such elite players, we could dominate most teams with a counterattack approach.
Turnovers
Because we are letting teams enter our zone pretty easily, we are forced to go 200 to get scoring chances. And we are often playing too loose or too soft. And we have been making lots of mistakes with our puck management. Either turning pucks over at the blue lines or making soft plays to get pucks out. This is what keeps eating us alive. It's not that the other team scores all the time on these mistakes, but it leads to really good chances, long shifts where our D are stuck in their own zone defending, especially later in games. Happened too much against the isles.
Boardwork
The top line isn't working at all 5v5. got trapped in our own zone too much the last two games. And the few chances we are getting at 5v5 with that line are off the rush. the 2nd line was generating far more at 5v5 but again, everything to the outside. The third line with Vesey, Goody and Blais were at times the only line being successful at the style of play we're attempting at even strength. Either we need to switch the lines up, or we need to tweak our approach to how we generate offense at even strength. Our style in the offensive zone is far too east west mixed with lets take more shots and it's making life too easy for opposing goalies who rarely have their eyes taken away and almost never have to deal with a rebound. Our only goals in the past 2 games were from east west plays off of rushes. Just not good enough. And yesterday, our best chances were individual rushes. That speaks to a system that's either not in place or the players are not on the same page.
