They made strides at 5-on-4 that have mostly survived the lose of three of their top PK forwards in terms of minutes played. The 5-on-5 defense is certainly a matter of example. I would want to know if Granato is pushing everyone to keep blowing the zone and gliding back on defense since that's what we've seen out of most of last year's top scorers - there are too many instances of a guy like Tuch doing it but Thompson and Skinner certainly have the moments when they just don't give a f*** to be back. Hell, think of the RJohnson turnover that lead to one of the many early goals against in St. Louis - all three forwards blow the zone early and aren't in position even at their own blueline to support the puck so it's a mob scene at the net. We see it over and over again - the players almost to a man have moments when they just take themselves out of the play and it winds up as a failure cascade and into the back of the net. It reminds me a lot of Abysmal's attempted stretch passing from defensemen who just can't emulate Letang to forwards who were not Crosby/Malkin.
If the staff is still pushing for them to push the pace and blow the zone, the players ought to have a meeting and collectively come to the agreement that they need to stop it and get back to some fundamentals. If the staff is trying to get them to play a better set of fundamentals like actually taking better lines to get to their check or how to be in position to defend and guys aren't doing it, then start kicking people in the ass. But someone, somewhere, has to step forward and lead. Waiting is Botterill, waiting is death. Do something.
