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Ek on Flyers: Defense in Turmoil? Let’s fix it. |
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So this morning, wherever you look, we’re hearing about Andre being scratched…yesterday it was York…
The pairings for yesterday were…
Sanheim/Drysdale
Risto/Andre
Seeler/Zamula
In the NHL, there are three different kinds of defenseman…..
Sanheim, Drysdale, York are all more offensive minded. They are being told to activate and Torts clearly has stated that he wants them not to “over-think,” but to confidently make a decision and go with it….
Ristolainen is more defensive minded, but has offensive instincts…
Andre isn’t as solid yet, but makes great first passes and does occasionally activate… He needs to play fast to be effective.
Nick Seeler is mostly defense. Very smart. Doesn’t activate often, but also doesn’t make many mistakes..
Zamula is kind of a jack of all trades, but probably not an NHL player. He does give up way too many mistake mistakes at both blue lines however the Flyers keep him in because they are probably not worried about messing with his confidence as they are with York, Drysdale, and Andre…
My issue is with the pairings…
If you have three D whom you are asking to go with their first instinct and be offensive each needs to be paired with a D-man who is aware their partner is going to take chances and therefore can be ready to cover….Playing two of them together will NEVER work and you will cause countless odd men rush the other way….
Torts’ concept of keeping the third man high is partially to allow for the D rushes…but it also kind of needlessly complicates things and affects the offense because while the D men have offensive upsides those upsides are not as high as the forward stuck playing 3rd man high…
I’m definitely not an NHL coach, but there seem to be too many contradictions and too many margins for error when both D on a pairing are playing instinctually… York and Sanheim should never play together. Drysdae shouldn’t play with York and Sanheim either.
What say you?
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