Blues should study Av's offensive strategy

[Galatians221jb1]

After 4-0 I did something I've never done. I watched the other team. What I saw was exactly what the Blue's need to do. The Av's forwards were criss crossing, skating in circles and actively looking to get open to receive a pass. Our Blues are a poor passing team but in fairness to the puck carrier, they usually have no one open and are forced to dump the puck and hope someone on their team can get to it. As Monty has been saying, we don't skate. We like to get the puck, go backwards behind our net and slowly advance to the blueline where the defense has had ample time to set up and since the Blue's are so predictable we are easy to defense against. The result is we spend 70% of the game in our DZone and often can't complete one pass in our OZone. We have coaches for goalies, dmen, power play, penalty killing but we need a creative offensive coach. Even Vince Lombardi didn't call his own plays but had an OC who called the offensive plays. Our defense and goalkeeping suffers because we have little ability to keep the puck in the OZone.

[a smell of green grass]

If you listen to Monty, he claims that we are not winning the board battles. He seems to think that if we win those, all will be fine.

My thought is that the bigger problem is what doesn't happen when we win the board battles and we have the puck. We can't clear a puck from our D-Zone. We don't have a single player that can carry a puck successfully. That is why everyone is looking to pass, pass, pass.

[Galatians221jb1]

A few like to rush the puck: Kyrou and Parayko for instance but they fly into the OZone and the rest of the team is on a line change so they just give the puck to the other team. We have to have the slowest line changes in the league. Faulk on the other hand gets the puck and always goes behind our net to
Wait for the line change but we still can’t penetrate the OZone. We often can’t complete one pass in the OZone then it’s back to the DZone. It overstresses the dmen and the goalie. There’s more to an offensive plan than forechecking and winning board battles. I saw that with the Av”s

[Old_Goat]

Yes X 3 to posts above!

[Jeff Goldblum]

They should study every other team in the NHL and notice that you cant score when you dont shoot. How basic of a concept is that? The only players on the team who shoot with regularity are schenn, Faulk and Tucker. Everybody else is trying to accumulate assists. It's beyond pathetic.

[DawgDad]

You guys are wasting a lot of mental energy. Every coach and most every player the NHL knows what the Avs are doing. A few short seasons ago Monty led the Bruins to a 65-12-7 135 point season. The issue is NOT strategy, it is execution.

Time would be much better spent exploring why the execution is so poor. Why guys who played together productively last season are playing worse than raw rookies. Take Thomas, was he hurting BEFORE the ankle twist? Is Buch in a career decline and crash? Schenn was lost in space last night. Why? Etc. Etc. Etc.

[Jeff Goldblum]

You guys are wasting a lot of mental energy. Every coach and most every player the NHL knows what the Avs are doing. A few short seasons ago Monty led the Bruins to a 65-12-7 135 point season. The issue is NOT strategy, it is execution.

Time would be much better spent exploring why the execution is so poor. Why guys who played together productively last season are playing worse than raw rookies. Take Thomas, was he hurting BEFORE the ankle twist? Is Buch in a career decline and crash? Schenn was lost in space last night. Why? Etc. Etc. Etc.

Funny thing is that the offense was showing some life before kyrou and snuggerud came back.

[ManitobaBlues]

You guys are wasting a lot of mental energy. Every coach and most every player the NHL knows what the Avs are doing. A few short seasons ago Monty led the Bruins to a 65-12-7 135 point season. The issue is NOT strategy, it is execution.

Time would be much better spent exploring why the execution is so poor. Why guys who played together productively last season are playing worse than raw rookies. Take Thomas, was he hurting BEFORE the ankle twist? Is Buch in a career decline and crash? Schenn was lost in space last night. Why? Etc. Etc. Etc.

Correct — the Avs are a well-oiled machine that executes night in and night out. Sure, they have the odd lapse, but they correct it almost immediately. The confidence level in that room is unreal; every guy knows he can stretch a play, and if he gets burned, his linemates are right there to clean it up.

And if you’ve noticed Makar this year, he’s basically playing a hybrid role as a defensive forward. It’s insane. When they beat the Wild 5–1, he had a goal and two assists, jumping into the slot all game like a fourth forward while the forwards rotated back to cover the blue line. Looks like something they’ve been testing, and it’s clearly throwing teams off.

[Red7]

I agree. They need to get Makar, MacKinnon, etc.

[Army's Mom]

You guys are wasting a lot of mental energy. Every coach and most every player the NHL knows what the Avs are doing. A few short seasons ago Monty led the Bruins to a 65-12-7 135 point season. The issue is NOT strategy, it is execution.

Time would be much better spent exploring why the execution is so poor. Why guys who played together productively last season are playing worse than raw rookies. Take Thomas, was he hurting BEFORE the ankle twist? Is Buch in a career decline and crash? Schenn was lost in space last night. Why? Etc. Etc. Etc.

Their head coach has been there a decade. Thats a lot of time to instill his systems and remake the culture of the team.

We got pur long term coach in Monty (questions aside, theyre not firing a guy with several years left under contract while headed into a GM transition).

Now the Blues building up the culture Monty wants. One of the next big moves the Avs made was moving out malcontentes wunderkid (and Top 5 pick) Matt Duchene. That cemented it as MacKinnon's team.

Next big move for the Blues? Trading Kyrou.

[Absolut]

You guys are wasting a lot of mental energy. Every coach and most every player the NHL knows what the Avs are doing. A few short seasons ago Monty led the Bruins to a 65-12-7 135 point season. The issue is NOT strategy, it is execution.

Time would be much better spent exploring why the execution is so poor. Why guys who played together productively last season are playing worse than raw rookies. Take Thomas, was he hurting BEFORE the ankle twist? Is Buch in a career decline and crash? Schenn was lost in space last night. Why? Etc. Etc. Etc.

Execution and talent.

[bud white]

You guys are wasting a lot of mental energy. Every coach and most every player the NHL knows what the Avs are doing. A few short seasons ago Monty led the Bruins to a 65-12-7 135 point season. The issue is NOT strategy, it is execution.

Time would be much better spent exploring why the execution is so poor. Why guys who played together productively last season are playing worse than raw rookies. Take Thomas, was he hurting BEFORE the ankle twist? Is Buch in a career decline and crash? Schenn was lost in space last night. Why? Etc. Etc. Etc.

Their head coach has been there a decade. Thats a lot of time to instill his systems and remake the culture of the team.

We got pur long term coach in Monty (questions aside, theyre not firing a guy with several years left under contract while headed into a GM transition).

Now the Blues building up the culture Monty wants. One of the next big moves the Avs made was moving out malcontentes wunderkid (and Top 5 pick) Matt Duchene. That cemented it as MacKinnon's team.

Next big move for the Blues? Trading Kyrou.

Interesting observation.

That being said ... how does that relate to the Blues? I think most will agree that the faces of leadership group - based upon tenure and (unfortunately) salary - would be Schenn, Thomas, Kyrou, Parayko, Binnington. Who would / should be moved to make this "their" team? I don't know the dynamic within the room - no one does. But I read the body language. We have a lot of guys who hate to lose, but we have a few that look indifferent to poor play. Kyrou is one of them who - in their body language - just don't come across as "hating to lose". You simply can't have that player as one of your core group.

It is blatantly obvious that there is something souring the milk. It is just difficult to fathom how this team continues to play as they do with the talent that they have.