Rejoint: mai 2017
Messages: 938
Mentions "j'aime": 253
People repeat the same bits all over the place on social media: Babcock played a defensive style, Babcock wants a system where players wait for opponents to mess up, Babcock believed in an outdated style of play.
Not the case. It's the opposite. Babcock always preached an offensive style. He's the one who introduced the trademark North-South stretch pass system we used all these years, with Gardiner at QB. His "defensive system" had nothing conventional. He wanted players to put intense pressure along the boards to regain possession (read: puck chasing), by outnumbering the puck carrier, with the hope of generating fast counter-attacks. Instead of a more conservative, positional play.
We are the second worst defensive team in the league! If Babcock taught a defensive style, we would lose games 2-1. Not the case. The problem is, the defensive system was lacking in the first place, and he couldn't find a solution to it this year.
My guess: this run and gun system, with intense pressure on puck carriers, worked in the past because the lineup was more balanced. And we had players who had been trained with that system for years. They knew Gardiner would reach them with a pass if they cheated. Change the lineup, and new players are not used to that. They don't know where to go, make errors, which leads to silly looking goals.