Bolts at Colorado

So bear with me.  I'm blogging from my iPad and i'm trying to figure out how to do this so things might look a little funny.  I'm also trying to figure out a way to make this blog...ya know...useful to read.  So instead of looking at every goal or chance, i'm going to highlight some basic hockey "strategies".  I use strategies in quotes because it's more like, things you learn in pee wee hockey that is easier said than done.

Anyways, for todays blog...i'm going to be highlighting a goal by the Lightning and a good scoring chance from the Avalanche that are created by the same mistake.  Failing to get the puck in deep.  Getting the puck in deep is the most basic maxim in hockey.  If you've been watcing 24/7, you hear the coaches (this season and last season) say things like "let's grind these female dogs out" or "let's keep moving north".  It means, you either carry the puck in and you are good enough to dangle around the D.  Or you chip it in and chase after it.  Or you throw in a hard dump and have a team mate chase after it.  What it DOESN'T mean is chipping it right to the opposing D so they can turn it around.  It doesn't mean making a drop pass at the blue line that fails, trying to dangle a D and failing, trying an east-west pass and failing etc etc. Teams fail to get the puck in deep.  Sometimes it's not a biggie.  But often times, it leads to a good scoring chance for the opposition.

Anyways, the first goal we'll look at is Kubina's goal that put the Lightning up 1-0.  The goal comes because the Avalance fail to get the puck in deep.  Here it is.

Now let's take a closer look.  Ultimately this is a bad goal by Giguere, but I'm gonna make the argument that there were two Colorado defensive lapses.  One that caused Kubina's shot (failing to get the puck in deep) and the other that would have allowed Purcell to have a wonderful chance at a rebound had Giguere made the save on Kubina's initial shot (failing to cover the late man coming in).

I've highlighted where the puck is with the red circle.  This happens all the time in hockey games and I get upset every time the Lightning do it (which is often).  It's a small mistake but it is relatively easy to avoid and if you make this mistake it often times leads to a scoring chance for the opposition.  The colorado player who last touched the puck has one goal in this situation.  Get the puck in deep in the Lightning's zone (make the puck go down the blue arrow!).  He fails.  To make matters worse, Colorado is on a line change.  This allows the Lightning to get a quick break the other way.

So we have Vinny with the puck (circled in red) with Kubby trailing the play.  The Avalanche just finished a line change so they are in scramble mode.  The defender in the center should move up to Kubby once Vinny makes the drop pass to him.  That defender actually does a decent job (albeit a little slow)

So as you can see Kubby has the puck, the defender has moved over to him to try to block or disrupt the shot, but now you have another defender that is comitting the sin of looking at the puck carrier and not paying attention to his surroundings.  That would be Purcell (yellow arrow) floating in towards the net to look for a rebound.

So of course we know the shot from Kubby goes in, but as you can see because the Avalanche player failed to pick up Purcell coming in late, he's wide open right in front of the net.

Next, let's take a look a this great chance by the Avalanche.  

It starts because Tyrell fails to get the puck in deep.  That starts it, but the second mistake is a breakdown in coverage that leads to a player being wide open for a rebound chance.

Tyrell is usually good about not making this mistake, but as you see, he *tries* to do a simple chip and charge, except the chip fails, the avalanche quickly move the puck the other way.  And, as it just so happens, the Bolts are trying to complete a line change here (which is a big reason the defensive coverage lapse happens).

So because of the line change, poor old Hedman is alone in taking on 3 players while the others rush back to get in the play.  Hedman being the lone guy, has to take the puck carrier.

The puck carrier that Hedman was covering drops the puck to the shooter here.  Now that some time has passed, a few other Lightning players have joined the play.  What ideally should happen here is Hedman moves off the puck carrier and follows that guy driving the net (red arrow) and the defenseman should move up to the puck carrier, which he does.  Hedman stays with the puck carrier and makes an attempt to block the shot.  Which would be great....except he doesn't block the shot, leaving a WIDE open rebound chance.  Great save by Garron.

So next time you watch a game, look at how often fails to get the puck deep vs the opposition.  It's one of the fundamental things that the Bolts aren't great at this season.