Rumsfeld wrote:I know AV likes to green-light the defense but I'm getting palpitations watching Rome and Alberts pinching down low every shift like they're freaking Paul Coffey.
The chance of them actually contributing offensively from there is far outweighed by the chance of their team getting burned becaude they're too slow to get back in the play. Their offensive instincts are terrible and I'd rather see them stick to defense, especially in the third period of a tie game.
I nearly dry-heaved when I watched Rome try a toe drag along the boards on a pinch last night.....the result? He got pinned by 2 dmen against the boards and Nashville went the other way. Didn't mind the pinch to keep the puck in, but he had a forward in the far corner wide open. Next time just push the puck around to him and keep the play going eh wot Aaron.....
Agree with ya Rats, Topper is fairly accurate with his critiquing of Hodgson, however, he's focusing on all the aspects of CoHo's game that Hodgson was NOT drafted for. He could battle more consistently along the boards, but at the same time, he's not afraid of the scrum in front of the net, and many of Topper's examples are when there is already a Canuck or two in the scrum and Hodgson drops down lower for a pass. It's called supporting the puck, and I like it because we see time and again where the puck squirts out of the scrum and we don't have a player in the open ice with time to make a play and it's just buried again along the boards.
As for the Lou belly flop. I stand corrected, he does hit the ice after the puck goes in. However, regardless of whether or not that puck even hits the net, Louie is still ending up on his belly on both those plays because he's starting that forward dive before the puck is released. My issue is the way that he comes across the bottom of the net, lunging out and falling forward like that instead of staying up on his knees and making himself big. I get what he's trying to do, take away the bottom of the net while moving his body out at the puck to eliminate some angle, it's what Hasek always did, eliminate the area where the highest percentage of pucks make there way into the net. Well, news flash Louie, Hasek played in the dead puck era where attacking forwards were working as hard (or harder) to stay on their skates while being pulled and hauled at by defending sticks, as they were trying to get the puck up and over the goalie. Now, if a defender's stick so much as passes through the ref's field of view of the attacker's hands/stick/mid section on a scoring chance, it's almost a guaranteed 2 minutes in the box. The majority of successful goalies right now are making themself look as big as Giguere circa 2002. Lou's not in the successful minority right now.