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Panthers Plan A Pressure Type Game
by Paul on 09/18/08 at 05:08 PM ET
Comments (4)
from Brian Biggane of the Palm Beach Post,
DeBoer, who will begin his first camp Saturday as an NHL head coach, will institute an aggressive, puck-possession game patterned after that of the Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings.
“We won’t be sitting back. We’re going to be in your face,” said Stephen Weiss, who enters camp as the team’s No. 1 center. He played the same role for DeBoer seven years ago at Plymouth of the Ontario Hockey League.
“Our bread and butter is going to be forechecking,” Weiss said. “It’s going to be up-tempo all the time.”
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Comments
DeBoer, who will begin his first camp Saturday as an NHL head coach, will institute an aggressive, puck-possession game patterned after that of the Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings.
Statements like that always make me laugh. He might as well have said, “Well, we don’t have the talent to pull it off but we’re going to play like the Detroit Red Wings anyway.” Numbskulls!
The Red Wings play the way they do because Ken Holland went out and got the talent needed to play that kind of game. You can “preach” any style of hockey you want, but if you don’t have the talent needed to pull it off, you’re wasting your time and whatever talent you do have.
A team needs to either play the type of game that fits their existing skill set or they need to develop a team with the skill set needed to play a certain type of game. I just don’t see the puck-moving, puck-possession kind of talent on the Panthers team that they’ll need in order to play “Red Wings” hockey.
This style of play didn’t happen overnight, folks. It took Scotty Bowman and the organ-I-zation years to put it all together. Saying you’re going to do it and having the players needed to pull it off are two completely different things.
Posted by OlderThanChelios from Grand Rapids on 09/18/08 at 06:56 PM ET
OTC is right, but forechecking isn’t very talent intensive and that is the word that DeBoer used. Whatever the individual team results, you have to like that teams want to emulate an uptempo style; that’s good for hockey generally.
Posted by Osrt on 09/18/08 at 11:17 PM ET
...forechecking isn’t very talent intensive and that is the word that DeBoer used.
This is sort of the same discussion I had with The Forechecker in another thread, Orst. Other teams seem to key in on the Wings ability to forecheck as the key component in their “style” of play. I just don’t see it that way.
The Wings have been a good forechecking team for quite a while now, led by guys like Draper and Maltby. But the current Red Wings “brand” puts every bit as much emphasis on backchecking. It was Babcock’s ability to get everyone to buy into that approach that has made the Wings a dominant team. Those who couldn’t (or wouldn’t) get with the program (like Bobby Lang) were shown the door.
So, other teams can up the tempo of their forecheck all they want, but if they don’t get everyone on the team to commit to backchecking, they’ll never become a Wings-style team.
Posted by OlderThanChelios from Grand Rapids on 09/19/08 at 08:33 AM ET
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Sounds like my kind of team!
Posted by Forechecker from Nolensville, TN on 09/18/08 at 05:42 PM ET