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Speculation: Roster Building Thread - Part XXXVII

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pld459666 said:
They beat Carolina in game 7, Copp retention is an absolute must.

I think its a must either way, but the package given up if we get to Conf. Finals, to me, means we have to retain that player beyond this post season
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Good point. And I think that if they do win tomorrow, Copp is a big factor. Though I kind of doubt Drury weighs the draft pick part very heavily against his cap construction.
 
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If the plan is to use Copp at center, sign me up.

If they want to use him at wing... I mean... should have just kept Buch instead.
 
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Ola said:
I am not saying that there aren’t room for improvement (or that it is), but what is like Carolina doing?

They put the puck on a stick of their own guys outside their own blueline but on the defensive side of the redline and just goes on a rush from their. It’s amazing how consistent they are with connecting with two passes in a row with that play and not giving it up. The pass up ice from a D and then the next to someone else heading up ice. If we get the puck up ice 66% of the time they get it up ice 80% of the time.

I am struggling a bit to understand how a team like Carolina makes that work. With how teams like Tampa play, I recognize how the system is implemented and what you must do to make it work. This style is a bit foreign to me.

Another thing that should be mentioned is that Carolina should be labeled as a team that plays a man-man D. This is a scale for all teams, but ever wonder why Carolina is picking up our left our Ds and or guys with a history from Detroit? Not many teams play that aggressive with a man-man D anymore but they do. Tampa does it. Chicago does it. Detroit does it. Colorado does it. But it’s not black and white. It’s a scale thing. In any event — that are helping Carolina out so much in their transition play. They have Aho and Trochek who are good at transporting the puck. But in all situations when they win pucks they have speed under their skates. This is a big difference when comparing us to them. There is no doubt that playing more man-man is a down side defensively, but the big positive is that once you win the puck, you are much more likely to have speed under your skates and that is a bitch to play against as an attacking team. Carolina makes up for the defensive side by having 3 forwards who are really loyal defensively.

Ultimately, I am not sure if I see much gains to be made — in the transition play — with the Xs and Os. The league is pretty conform and what kills is speed at center ice that can put on the jets really fast.
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Speed at center is helpful but not a necessity. What is a necessity is using the middle of the ice even and especially before you reach the neutral zone. Having speedy centers definitely helps that cause, but I think it's even more important to have defensemen moving up the ice on the far side and pushing the far side defensemen back into the neutral zone while you're breaking out. Nils may not have been a boon this season, but this was something he did exceptionally well in his brief time here, and it's borne out in his 'play-driving' numbers. Ultimately, if you want to control play you have to play with risk--in every zone. A couple big weaknesses for our team that I see (on top of speed at center) are 1) our defense is not altogether very aware of how to play of the puck on offense. We're pretty rigid about what our defensemen do and they pretty much play with the mandate to get the puck off of their sticks as quickly as possible and to support the forwards from above (or below in the def. Zone). 2) We are really weak as far as puck reception and hand eye. It's noticeable around the league for many, many good teams that the window each player has for playing the puck, even at high speeds, is as high as the players waist and can extend horizontally a stick lengths in all directions. We're shockingly bad at stopping pucks--they almost always have to reach a player in a very small window. Of course some of our players are very good at this--fox, Panarin, Kakko, zibanejad, and Miller all come to mind, even goodrow--but outside of them, pucks usually pass our players which makes using the middle of the ice all the more risky for us.
 
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Congratulations on the child. Always a wonderful time to be a parent despite Sometimes excruciating external circumstances. Should We start a 2040 draft thread already?
 
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