Hockey

Discussion in 'Sports' started by piezoe, Sep 22, 2020.

  1. piezoe

    piezoe

    As per my comments in the thread "Predator Uniforms..., last night the Dallas Stars failed repeatedly to gain the inside position when defending their own net and their power play was terrible. The lightning did better at both. The end result is as expected. The Lightning take game two 3-2. (I did not see Game one which Dallas won.)

    A good example of a major defensive lapse is given by the first Lighting goal scored by Point(#21) from directly in front the Stars net on a Lighting power play. Four Dallas defenders, in a diamond configuration, which they play when a man down, look on helplessly. Unfortunately Dallas's configuration left a gap immediately in front of the Dallas net into which Braden Point slipped and parked himself while waiting for the puck to be passed to him. The Dallas configuration is nice on the coaches white board, but on the ice defenders, regardless of whether a team is short handed , must always achieve the inside position next to, and not a sticks length away from, the opposing players who at any moment are in the highest probability scoring positions. There are no exceptions to this rule. Those players in extremely dangerous goal scoring positions have to be covered man for man. There is no such thing as a zone defense against a man in a perfect position to score. And it only takes one man to defend! each opposing player; not three. You can witness Dallas's inept defensive performance here: https://www.espn.com/nhl/game/_/gameId/401247149 [see the first goal on the video, and note the position of the Dallas defenders configured around the goal scorer, Point (#21).]

    Three Dallas defenders have only one possible play and that is to deflect or intercept the pass that inevitably will come toward Point.. Had one of those defenders achieved the inside position between Point and their goal, that player would have three plays possible, the puck, Point's stick, or Point. Notice the fourth Dallas defender (#5) is correctly covering the Lightning player immediately in front of the Dallas goaltender man to man, but note that the defender has not achieved the inside position, making his defense more difficult and very hard to move the Lighting player, he lifts the lighting players stick as his only option.

    On at least two power plays Dallas wasted a great deal of time in their own end of the ice after the Lightning had iced the puck. And they committed the worst power play sin: passing the puck back or circling back into their own end. Meanwhile the clock is running, and the winger's and center's momentum drops toward zero. For a lesson on how a team should move the puck out of their end of the ice when a man up, see the Boston Bruins Power Play, which is the best in the NHL! See also my comments Re the Power Play in the thread "Predator Uniforms ..."

    .. Barring injuries, the Lightning in six or seven games will take home this years Stanley Cup.
     
  2. piezoe

    piezoe

    Game three was dominated by the Lightning. Lightning captain Steven Stamkos returned to the ice after a long absence following surgery to repair a muscle injury. Stamkos scored the second goal for the lightning on his first shot on goal only a few minutes after stepping on the ice in the first period.

    The first goal of the game was scored by Kucherov, the Lightning Left Winger, in a classic example of a shot that is one of several very difficult saves for a goalie to make -- perhaps it is the most difficult of all. This shot applies to a left shooting player against a right handed goal tender, or a right shooting player against a left handed goal tender. Kucherov shoots left, and the Dallas goal tender is right handed, so his stick hand is his right hand.

    When a left shooter is positioned right of goal center about 10-14 feet out he can not see the low left corner of the net, as his vision there is blocked by an up-right goal tender positioned dead center a couple feet in front of the net . The shooters stick blade, which is well to the left of the shooters body, can, however, "see" that low left corner. So long as the goalie is upright and not butterflied on the ice, a shot on the ice or raised a few inches next to the goal tenders right post is a difficult save. This has to do with both the shape and the weight of the goaltenders stick. The blade and widened shaft are positioned in the wrong direction to assist in making this save. The goal tender has to either bat the puck away by swinging his stick left or attempt to stop it with his right leg pad. Only NHL caliper goal tenders are able to make this save from an up right position when it is perfectly executed and not telegraphed by the shooter. And the save percentage is low. The shooter looks right. and moves right, and gives the appearance of pulling the puck to his right but with a flick of the wrist lets the puck go, more or less straight ahead, to the lower far left corner of the goal next to the post. The shooter actually can not see what he is shooting at, but if the blade of his stick had eyes in it, it would be looking almost straight ahead at that lower left goal corner. Many, many goals have been scored with this shot, but it depends on the positioning of both the shooter and the goal tender. Kucherov proved it is an effective goal-scoring shot for a left shooter against a right-handed goalie, even the best goalies, when expertly executed.

    Neither team did a particularly good job of obtaining the inside position when defending in front of their own net, and as per usual the Dallas Power Play sucked for reasons I have already noted. Final score 5-2 Lightning. Lightning lead the series 2-1.
     
    Last edited: Sep 24, 2020
  3. piezoe

    piezoe

    Games four and five became increasingly lack luster with generally slow skating and slow play-making. The play resembled more the mid season slump than the Stanley cup. Game Four was high scoring with routine defensive lapses on both sides about equally. The best player on the ice was the Dallas goal tender, Anton Khudobin, but in the end the Lightning prevailed (5-4).

    Game five was similar to four, but low scoring. Poor defensive play all the way around matched by poor offensive play kept the score down. Both teams were lax in achieving the inside defensive position in front of their own nets. It was 2-2 going into double overtime. During the overtime the seemingly impossible was accomplished by turning speed down yet another notch. Both teams skated is if going out for a leisurely Saturday afternoon skate. This may have had to do with back to back games four and five, played Friday and Saturday. Players seemed worn out, and you weren't' sure if they were going to lie down on the ice for nap time. Eventually Dallas got the winner (Corey Perry) by parking in front of the Lightning net unmolested, as they had been allowed to do all night. https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id...aways-dallas-stars-double-win-gives-us-game-6 (Note the announcer's astute comment on the Perry winning goal.)

    It seems that the Lightning have reduced the speed of their game to match Dallas, whereupon Dallas has taken it yet another notch lower. If this continues, Game six, Monday night, will be played at curling speed. Perhaps a twenty-four hour rest will bring rejuvenated players to the ice.
     
  4. piezoe

    piezoe

    Unfortunately I couldn't watch game six. But the outcome was as anticipated. Clearly from the outset of the series the Lightning were the better team. Of the teams the Lightning played during the playoff and final series, probably the Bruins were the second best team, even though they went out in five games vs. the Stars in six. Had the Bruins replaced Chara on defense, the outcome of the Conference title games might have been different. I do understand why replacing the deservably very popular Chara with a younger player at the end of Chara's last season would have been difficult. The Bruins and Lightning were otherwise very closely matched. I have to think Andrei Vasilevskiy's sharp play in the Lightning net also was a key component in their success. He was steady as a rock throughout the playoffs. Congratulations to the Lightening for their outstanding play. They deserved the Cup. In the future, I hope to see tightened up defensive play around the net in the NHL. It bothers me to see so many players camping out in front of the opposing teams net unmolested. Letting the opposition's forwards get and keep the inside position routinely is a very bad habit for defensemen to fall into.