Its been said that we are a team that lacks the cojones to close the door when it matters. That we are a team that, if given the opportunity, would rather be losing with five minutes to go than have a one goal lead. Some people even say that we cant handle the pressure of a win.
But to me that's the equivalent of saying that we are born losers.
I cant accept that.
I wont accept that.
In fact, the reality is not that we know how to lose but it's just that we dont know how to win.
Call it semantics, but there is a difference.
A Game Overview:
Any warm and fuzzy feeling that you may have gotten from game one is gone now. If you had anything to feel encouraged about, it just blew up in your face. We got smoked. Our butts were handed to us. We were reamed thin, chewed up and spit out. We played like a team of rookies. Scratch that. A team of fat, out shape, slow, over confident rookies.
Our performance was a punch line. It was really 'haha' funny though.
The interesting part about this game was how we started. We actually carried the ball, controlled the tempo, made some good shots and had a few scoring chances. It looked like we would be in for a competitive game. But the other team scored first...second and third.
We were down by 3 with a defense that got turned around numerous times, a second line that 'ran' past their assignment if the other team deked just the slightest and a 1st line that couldn't muster any offense besides the Ron Leger long range slapshot.
A comeback wasn't happening.
But being down 3-2 at the start of the third period gave us hope. The hope deflated about 40 seconds into the period. The other team scored on a bouncy ping pong ball like goal. It was 4-2, it may as well have been 15-2.
Final Score 5-2. With an Empty Netter.
More Questions than Answers:
I think I should preface this before I go any further:
We have a good team. And yes, we were missing a few key players this week. But, we have a fundamental issue. And Im not even talking about the BobCat 'thing' or Brendon questioning the move of MVW over him on the 6 on 5 (which was the right move). Those are bumps in the road. They were both ridiculous, but nothing too big.
Let me just say it: This team never picks themselves up. Never. That's why we never win. Everything snowballs. And you can quantify this theory by looking at a single play or the game as a whole. When was the last time a key scorer struggled and the team managed to pick him up to persevere for the win?? It doesn't happen. the key winger has to score or we lose, period. We never have that "out of nowhere" performance to lift the team up. We live and die with the performance of the few. Thats why we lose. We never have a 'Bobby Keilty' hit a game winning homer or a 'Nick Punto' with a key defensive save. Its the same people carrying the offense every week.
We are a team that prides itself on hustle and stingy defense (we have done neither the last two weeks btw), but we need to do a better job turning the other teams failed rush into our own offensive breakout. Hard and accurate passes. It starts with me and the defense. I haven't done my job. The defense as a whole has not done what it needs to do. Adjustments need to be made. They have been made. Its time to kick some butt. And it starts on defense.
For some reason stagnant performance plagues us all. But we are better than this.
It starts next week.
27 comments:
good recap nick.
its only been 2 weeks and while we've all had our mistakes i've also seen some good things out there. there is definitly an adjustment period for the size of the rink and the floating blue line. that period should be over. lets just make calm smart plays out there. offense and defense. keep hustling and most importantly have fun! Scratch the fun part, we cant do that!
i agree with Frendon. It's way better to lose by 2 than to lose by 3. It sounds like you guys were on the verge of getting that third goal....... I've never ever ever seen an NHL coach pull the goalie down by two. Ever. Start listening to Frendon more.
Let me help you Brett....jog your memory.
The Bruins beat Ottawa 4-3 in a shootout on Oct 24, 2009. The Bruins were losing 3-1, pulled their goalie with 2 mins left and scored 2 goals to tie the game. Then they won in OT. You can look it up......
Of course, you might have been sarcastic, I couldnt tell....
Billy, doesn't the fact that I suggested to listen to frendon more tip you off?
I got your sarcasm, Brett. And I've seen goalies pulled by coaches not only when they were down by 2, but, when a team was even down by 3. Game 7 of the finals last year, for example. Luongo got pulled when the Canucks were down by 3. You have nothing to lose. Desperate times call for desperate measures.
I think if we start trying to do what we talked about after for the breaking out of the zone it will be a big help / improvement.
Like we said since they constantly had 3 guys preasuring our centers they had to play really deep in our own zone. If we try to use the center more as an outlook for the breakout we might have some better sucess.
Also since the rink is much bigger the wingers can't just hang at center ice they really need to make sure they are in front of the guys on the point.
Brendon, I saw you mouth mike's name as you went back to the bench puzzled.
You obviously didn't agree with the call.
Brett, I knew you were being sarcastic...
But did you know that I knew that you were being sarcastic? You are pretty smart, I think you knew that I knew that you knew I was being sarcastic as well.....
i guess i cant spell "road"
lol
Frendon's reasoning never ceases to amaze me
Ur right. I'm extreamly confident that you will not help the team in any way shape or form. Just keep focussing on over pursuing frendon. You're good at that
brendon, i deleted all comments about this subject. Including my response to the crap you just wrote. Nothing good will come of it. Just drop it.
That, however, is not an admission that I "made it up".
and I have 20/20 vision.
What are the bruins doing pulling the goalie?. Don't they know Montreal would just try harder to score? Fire julian
With all the power outages will we have a game tomorrow night?
You're a tool. :). I put a one liner of absolute fact in the recap. You could have let it slide with a mea culpa, heat of the moment type of thing. Instead, you didn't and decided to deny and lie about what you did. Go bark up a different tree. I saw what I saw. It's not about being a nazi, its about keeping the peace on the site but if you want to go here we should, right? What you did deserved to be ripped on to the extreme degree...but I really let it go. Good teammates don't do what you did, but it is what it is. Fine, if you say you didn't then I believe you. Let's move on.Though, I have to ask, did you agree with mvw out there over you?
Brendon you are a terrible teammate and no real team would put up with your antics, but thankfully we Aren't a real team.
You roll your eyes when jb sends mike ward out, I saw it too. That is beyond terrible team play because mike ward saw it, not that he cares but not looking for distractions.
We call a time out down by two goals jb is about to regroup the team....NOPE!!! In comes brendon "if we pull the goalie they will score and we will lose". YAY!!! Good pep talk.
You had a good game brendon, but you have to think of how some of these actions look out there.
there is no power in dracut right now but he hopes to have it on in time. plan on the game at 900 unless i text or call you.
Brendon do you realize that if you just owned up when you made a bad play instead of trying to defend it everyone wouldn't gang up on you??
And don't say that no one else gets called out because they do or they call themselves out.
Kinda like how u owned up to that lazy play last Sunday? U try to justify everything you do wrong as if you planned it. U never admit u made a bad play ever. Never accept blame. Its always someone else or u always try to turn attention to someone else's faults and try to drag them down with u. U are just plain awful at playing hockey and even worse as a teammate.
I actually thought frendon had turned a new leaf from how he played and conducted himself in the league in Saugus. But I guess he's the same old frendon
We fought hard last night, good game even though we lost.
My bad on the 2nd or 3rd goal. I ended up doing what turned out to be a lousy change.
We had gotten the ball and I thought we had control so I turned and took off for the bench and never realized they had gotten it back. I should have made sure we got it out of our zone before trying to get off..
Last night’s game was actually great to watch. You guys did alot of things really good (except score:)
Defense i still think needs some work. And yes I'm taking in consideration that there were only 2 d-men, but from what I saw, and even what the goalie said to me to confirm it(if that’s worth anything), you guys give them way too much room entering the zone. You back off way too fast and let them gain the blueline way too easy. I’m not saying you should run straight at the guy cause then he just makes one move and he has a breakaway. You should be backing up WITH him, not backing up AWAY from him. And yes I also know there were a few 3 on 2s that you need to play a little different, but if you don’t give up the blue line so easily, they can’t set up the 3 on 2.
I know it's easier said than done
brett, I agree 100%.
I said it last week but its worth saying it again, Im supposed to be the anchor and haven't been at all. I think we have taken baby steps at best. The defense in Saugus was played (for the most part) very well. Dracut has been a different story.
However, I thought this week was a huge improvement on the transition game, with some hard passes out.
What they did on the 3 on 2's was they would all be even until the man carrying the ball would almost stop. As a result, it forced the defenseman to make a tough call: take the guy with the ball (the shot) or go in deep with the otherman who was instep with ball carrier but because he gained the zone charged the net.
If the dman took the shot the ball carrier would have a wide open man to pass to with the other dman playing, for all intents a purposes, a 2 on 1. If the dman took the man charging the net, the ball carrier would be free to carry and shoot/pass.
Thinking about it last night (and reading what you wrote) the only way you could really play it better is if you step up before they gain the blue line. Dont give them a chance to get started, but if you miss (or they make a quick pass), we would have a 3 on 2 on our hands or worse, a 3 on 1. The adjustment wasnt made and it burned us, twice.
The other thing Ive noticed is that everybody knows I like to create board battles because I usually win those. Dracut is so big compared to Saugus that Ive cut the angle almost too quickly to the boards that they have time (the room) to cut back the angle and sneak past me. It leaves you kind of flat footed. It happend last week and this week.
I think we are getting there, and I dont think as a whole we are that far off but adjustments are still needed.
also, the value of playing with a defensive pair is huge. Thats one thing in saugus that we had.
Continuity is huge.
Post a Comment