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Written by Ryan
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Saturday, 06 March 2010 09:51 |
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 I'm going to keep this on the ice. The thought occurred to me that the Sabres fan who told me their whale-in-heat voiced announcer was dying or retiring a couple seasons ago may not have been as reliable a source as I had hoped. So keeping it on the water, here's an overly analytical look at the first five minutes of last night's game. The five minutes that all the 'come on boys!' are about, that are supposed to set the tone for the night.
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We're opening the game with Gagne-Richards-Carcillo and Pronger-Carle. As much as I want Carcillo to be top line material he's not. He holds his own out there but I can't help but think it's Scott Hartnell's fault for not turning into a $4.5M player that we don't have six top 6 forwards on the top 2 lines. Ok, the puck is about to drop.
The Sabres win the face off but the puck stays above the dots in each end for the first 30 seconds. Tyler Myers takes the puck behind his net and both teams make an early change as they, as well as we, can tell nothing is going on. Funnily enough this boring shift ends up deciding the pace for the entire game, more or less.
The Carter line comes out and the Sabres put a pass through Jeff Carter's neutral zone defense and end up getting a long wrister on net. The Sabres turn the puck over and we actually break out nicely, 2-48-17 double play and dump in. Leino's on the forecheck which ends up in a misplay by the Sabres and Danny Briere puts one of MANY shots wide from the right side of the boards that almost results in a Sabres break out, but Kimmo keeps it in. Leino does a good job covering for Kimmo but Carter's out of position when the puck squeezes to a Sabre in the slot, who skates it out and dumps it in. Everyone goes for a change.
Except for lonely Lucas Krajicek, who with all the time in the world ends up making the first big mistake of the game. There's an opportunity for a controlled break out, as there is absolutely zero forecheck, and Krajicek turns and blasts a slap shot around the boards. The pass was meant to got to Steve Hartnell, who is obviously at his home away from home - on the other team's blue line - but Jason Pominville places his skate on the boards, stops the puck, and makes a first pass to Derrick Roy as the Sabres attack Krajicek 2-on-1 as he comes to meet them. Saint Raffi Torres over passes the puck but Krajicek has been out there for his own shift and now is working on a second. Him being tired is one of the many reasons this turnover results in 35 seconds of Sabres puck control and shots, even though we have 4 fresh players out there. We're giving the points way too much room and at times it resembles a powerplay until Claude Giroux rips it around the boards and it bounces over the point man's stick. As we change they come right back and put one on Leighton from the blue line, who covers it.
Asham-Betts-and Lappy get their first shift. Strong puck work by Lappy leads to a clear up to Betts who dumps the puck in. These guys either are on a different system than the other lines or are the only ones who've had an opportunity to show it - they send two guys in deep and Asham is third man high. The forecheck results in a turnover and Asham puts it back down low again. This time the Sabres beat the forecheck, however, and get it deep in our zone. Nothing doing as the Sabres change and 4 guys touch the puck before our 4th line dumps it over the red.
And back to our first line. As we change you get your first look of the night of AT AT replicia Tyler Myers rushing the puck from behind his own net across our blue line. Richie is trying to lift his stick from behind but not no avail. Kimmo's poke check bounces to a Sabre and it rolls in on net, where Pronger clears it right to the Sabres left point man who has 20 feet between himself and Gagne. He rushes it into the corner, loses it, and eventually the puck makes its way up to Carcillo, who makes the Flyers first noticeably good play of the night with a chip pass through the neutral zone to Richards who has speed. This results in a 2-on-1.5. I say 1.5 because the near-side defenseman is right on Richie's hip. That pressure causes Richie to forget who's on his line and he makes a cute pass right near the blue line to where Jonathan Toews would be, not Daniel Carcillo. Like a transition drill it's right on a Sabres stick who is already crossing over in anticipation of revving it up the other way. The Sabres bring it back 2-on-3 and Kimmo's strong D leads to a turnover, and a dangerous clear attempt by Carcillo through the slot. Luckily Myers brings it back in offsides and Laviolette puts out the 2nd line.
This is our first hint of a good shift this game. The defense moves the puck up for a tip deep, the Flyers pursue, and although the puck makes its way out to the red line Ville Leino is there to pick up a not perfect break out pass and put it back deep. Repeat. This time all three forwards are on the puck as it's being worked on the low boards side hash marks. A wrap around leads to a chase for the puck in which Leino causes some disruption as he crashes into the boards. But the Sabres work it out easily as all three of our forwards follow each other to that side's hash marks. They dump it in and our D takes it right back and dumps it - a lot of punting do far.
Laviolette then skips the third line and goes right with the 4th, obviously sensing that the Flyers need some energy out there. As the 15:00 mark passes Lappy steals the puck from the Sabres defense on the break out and works it to Betts who tries a wrap around. This is the Flyers first real good shift of the game.
So what's to learn from all of this? Well a couple things. The Flyers had zero shots on net in the first five minutes. They didn't even get any puck control in the offensive zone. While last night I thought that this was a result of the two teams settling in, this morning I can see that it's the result of the Flyers coming out extremely flat. 7 shifts and hardly a promising opportunity. Their only success came when they got the puck deep and did whatever they could to disrupt whatever Buffalo was doing. It sounds simple, but that's the name of the game. Try to stop them on every single play. You see a guy trying to pass it then knock it down. If a guy is trying to skate around you with the puck then hit him. If a guy is trying to shoot the puck then block it. In every game there are thousands of 1-on-1's, 2-on-1's, etc. When your coach is playing 4 lines you don't have very much time to get anything done out there. So you can't let a pass go between your legs in the neutral zone. It's going to be three more minutes before you get a chance to get back out there again. I guess that's what coaches mean when they say 'compete.' The team that wins the Cup, which could indeed be the Flyers, will compete in every single mini-game out there. When you go into the corner with the puck and that other guy makes a play, it might not result in a goal but you just lost. Which gets me to thinking, maybe the overly discussed team aspect of the game sometimes hurts the players. When a guy scores a hat trick or a goalie gets a shutout he always say it was a result of his teammates. When you get beat 1-on-1 you know your teammate is going to cover for you, so it's not that bad. Maybe that safety net can cause you to lose your individual games and not care as much. The Flyers should hire someone to monitor every single individual 1-on-1 and give each Flyer a score for the night. When the list was published each morning and Danny Briere saw he lost 14-3 last night, as his team lost 3-2, maybe he'd see the correlation. After two nights of being the biggest loser I guarantee that a player would be focused on winning those small games, and the scoreboard would reflect that.
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Maybe in the locker room it actually is different, but no one is publicly held accountable for bad plays unless they result in goals.
I always hear how competitive these guys are. They need to want every puck every shift. Even if it's just to dump it in, not into an open net.