So I played another couple hours of drop in games after our club games to work on some stuff, cause there were a couple problems with myself I was noticing mostly this stuff :
- I not trying to hit as much it leaves me out of position too much, and im trying to use my stick more
- taking an extra half second / second to make a pass instead of rushing them and not getting them on the tape
- on the powerplay im moving around before shooting now cause too many times i was getting shots off that bounced off players and out of the zone
- when the other d is pinching im sticking closer to the center of the ice and being more careful
- trying to protect the puck more, ive been getting stripped of it a bit lately, and I just get lazy and never use the a button, but im trying to focus on that more
My games in drop ins gave me better marks, and the games went well so hopefully my play is tightened up for the next club games.
its good that you pretty much realize all key areas that a D-man needs to focus on. I still get caught a lot on some of this stuff too. The passing one is really key, as a d-man hitting the right person and with the right touch on the breakout is pretty much the best way for a d-man to impact the outcome of the game offensively. Any goals you get are just icing on the cake.
One thing I've learned that has helped me is that when you are passing up the wall, especially long passes if there is a slight gap between the receiver and the wall, you should try to use a slight bank off the wall really close to them and the game will kick in some serious auto aim and get the pass the them perfectly, whereas trying to aim directly at them just doesn't work all the time. Try that out.
Me and you in particular need to work on a better chemistry with moving the puck back and forth at the point in the offensive zone. We need to try to set each other up more for one-timers from far out. Two things to try. Off the faceoff if you are the guy towards center ice, start drifting out a bit towards the opposite boards. You seem to pinch in towards me a lot to grab the puck when its coming closer to me which leaves me with no pass option across. Read the centerman's grip before he takes the faceoff, on the draw you can only really win the puck back in one general direction depending on which handedness he uses, so as a d-man you can tell if its gonna come to you or not if he wins it by the center's stance.
Other thing, especially off faceoff wins. If I move the puck across to you really quickly, sometimes read the D and move it back to me, because the D that rushes out to the point will usually rush hard at the guy receiving the first pass and will leave the passer open.
Keep shooting though, you've had pretty good success, more than any other d-man scoring from the point. Off the faceoff win is usually not a good idea though, unless you make some kind of move to get free first.
To be fair, all the forwards are guilty of this. Cutting down on opposing scoring chances is a full team effort though. We have to be better about not turning the puck over so much. We have a tendency to hold the puck longer than we should and end up losing it. Its especially bad when it happens in our defensive zone.
I mentioned earlier that the odd man rushes are really hurting us as of late. We really need to do a better job of paying attention to where all 5 opposing skaters are and not letting them slip by for an easy chance. We lost a game 4-1 tonight and 3 of their goals were on breakaways/odd man rushes. Its impossible to prevent every rush but it doesn't take much effort to keep them to a minimum. We did a great job of it all last year and earlier this year, but we've been slacking lately. .
As far as the turnovers in the defensive zone go, I think we all need to be more aware of when our puck carrier looks like he is in trouble. A lot of times we don't provide good support options. Our wingers usually streak up the ice as far as possible to try to get behind the D. When I play Center I like to come back below the blue line and give a pass option to the puck carrier in the event the wingers are covered well, and at the very least be in a good enough position to help out defensively in case there's a turnover. The opposite D-man is usually further up the ice than the puck carrier so
Why do these replies always come up after we lose a few games in bad fashion? Have you ever seen us play any differently although you guys do bring up points to help? I haven't. Sorry if I'm a little bit negative, but Viz, we can't roll with the big boys. I don't see how you think we're some team that can stand up to them, but truth is we can't. That orange team we played that cycled well and I believe won 6-3, pushed our shit in all game. We started out well last night, but clearly ran into teams that were ranked higher than us and it showed.
I'm getting tired of trying to play D and defend the point. Half the time the Center or other Winger will be covering my guy and leaving the opposite wide open. Pretty annoying.
With that being said, yeah Moop you were pissing me off too. I never thought anyone could complain more than Marive, but that shit was getting out of hand. There is some randomness to hockey, you know? Just suck it up and roll with it. It's a game. And moop, I enjoy playing with you. Please don't take this the wrong way.
Viz, I'm getting sick of you calling me a coward or whatever is your flavor of the day. Until this team plays to the leave of beating Elite teams in good fashion, I'll continue to duck and avoid the frustration. And that's why I obviously kept leaving last night, but I got tired of listening to moop complain about leaving. Also, I'm not on any pedestal. If you think I'm all high and mighty I'm pretty sure I would be more than an average player which I know I'm not.
I enjoy playing with the majority of you guys, but let's be honest: we are an average team at best and that's what makes it fun for me. On my old club we would just roll guys the majority of the time and it would get boring. I like a challenge, albeit not one with top teams.
Milly were gonna have to agree to disagree, you are a coward.
Your definition of top teams is too broad. There is a difference between a 300-3-10 and a 900-300-100 team. You and Marvie see that big number of wins and get scared away for the 900 win team. If a team has lost a fucking 100 times before, WE CAN BEAT THEM! Same thing with points, a guy comes up with 1000 points on the player spotlight screen the shit must just run right down your pant leg. Most of the time its just because they play a lot or play bums that cant defend for shit.
We've beaten these kind of teams plenty of times before. Teams like that orange team from last night and that black & purple Monarchs team. It's as simple as playing better defense and sharing the puck better on our end. Like Marvie said, our defense has slipped this year. Point blank you are just never up to the challenge, despite what you said above. I think we are clearly better than an average team and if we have mostly experienced players in the lineup I don't really see this large gap in skill you see in most cases.
I agree its generally not a good idea to play teams with 30%+ shooting percentages as that's the best indicator of whether or not they have mastered the exploits. But we're better than an average team on most days. All your Elite teams that you are scared of do is play aggressive D and move well without the puck setting up multiple options for the cross crease pass. They scored 99% of their goals on one-time slapshots from the side or easily defendable cross-crease plays. That shit can be defended by us if everyone gets on the same page. A little communication on the mics on defense at least wouldn't hurt.
I'm glad the the "pedestal comment" caught your eye, as that was the intention. It was directly specifically at you, always moaning and groaning and mentioned how bad certain players are whenever someone new or doesnt play often wants to play. Give these dudes a chance and help them along if they need some pointers. You play 1 or 2 games with a person you aren't familiar with then just seem to dismiss them if they aren't up to your standards.
