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Too Much Zone Defense
by Paul on 11/09/07 at 08:22 AM ET
Comments (5)
from the Buffalo News,
This isn’t the NHL. It’s the English Premier League.
The upgraded style of play that resulted from the lockout has been victimized by strategy. Coaches adjusted to the rule changes intended to promote skill and skating. Defense reemerged as the great equalizer for offensively challenged franchises. Nowadays NHL players are always in the zone, be it a 2-3, a 1-4 or variations thereof. The game can’t breathe.
“Zone defense right now, I would put it under the label of killing the game,” Buffalo Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said Thursday. And he plays it.
Filed in: NHL Teams, Buffalo Sabres, NHL Talk | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: buffalo+sabres, lindy+ruff,
Comments
Maybe Buffalo isn’t scoring the way they expected because a whole mess of their goals went to New York and Philadelphia? Just a guess.
And I don’t think all the top forwards are struggling. Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Heatley, and Alfredsson seem to be coping with the defensive schemes okay for now.
Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 11/09/07 at 11:16 AM ET
Something that having the NHL Network in the last couple weeks has graphically shown me is how much more clogged up the game has become. Watching the 1989 Flames series, there’s tons of obstruction and stickwork, but modern defensive strategies were not yet in place to choke up the ice. People talk about expanding the goals and shrinking goalie pads, the latter I still do agree with, but I think the ice needs to get bigger. I think the NHL should go to olympic size ice and they should start to plan for it now.
Posted by false_cause from DC on 11/09/07 at 11:29 AM ET
But would larger ice really open up the game, or just force a team to set the trap up at a different point on the ice?
It’s easy to say, look at the Olympics, how open the games are, but I wonder how much of that is the larger ice surface and how much is the overall high level of talent on the ice. There aren’t very many muckers and grinders in international competitions, but they would still be around in the NHL even if the ice was larger.
Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 11/09/07 at 12:16 PM ET
Ruff is spot on. The defensive schemes are becoming more prevalent. Scoring is down this year and that doesn’t surprise me. There have been many Sabres games (both wins and losses) this year that have been virtually unwatchable. For example, 2 nights ago the Sabres beat Boston, but the game was _really_ boring. For much of the game the Bruins dropped 4 men back to the blueline. The only time the game got interesting was in OT when the teams went 4-on-4. Ruff isn’t complaining about his team not scoring - he knows that they aren’t - he’s commenting on a what I believe is a rather obvious trend.
Posted by Jeff from Buffalo on 11/09/07 at 12:59 PM ET
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Is anybody else getting sick of this whining? you might as well not post these articles because they’re the same thing every single day. Lindy is crying because his team is playing like crap and he has to blame somebody else, it’s ALWAYS somebody else’s fault with him. Nobody else is saying this, the hockey we’re seeing is not anything close to what he’s been crying about, maybe he should try playing Vanek more than 16 minutes a game and he’d have more luck scoring…
Posted by hurricaneoasis from Toronto on 11/09/07 at 10:05 AM ET