all on Girardi? lol no

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhh9jfh9kGA



i mean first of all it's a horrible, panicked change by somebody there. i assume it had to do with hard matching on Kovalchuk, and not bc they were scared of Gionta & Carter on the Devils 4th line (though they have played pretty effectively in the playoffs). but anyway, as Keith Jones points out here, that bad change, and lack of response from any of the other Rangers players, allows Kovalchuk and Gionta to double-team Del Zotto on the forecheck.

(the circled player in the eventual goal scorer Carter)

this situation isn't all that dangerous, i mean it's essentially a 2-on-4, but it's a 2-on-1 down low on the forecheck. Kreider i think is the player caught way up high, Girardi is out of position bc of the change, and Richards/Hagelin are just waiting for Del Zotto to win this puck battle vs 2 players for some reason.



here you can see the immense effort of the Rangers players, 4 of the 5 are basically gliding and waiting for the puck to be won.

and tbf to Girardi, he's probably thinking/hoping that Del Zotto is going to win that race, and reverse the puck to him. so he does have some responsibility to hold a wider position in that event, ya know, seeing as how the Rangers basically have 3 forwards standing around doing nothing.



still in ok position. Girardi has realized that maybe Del Zotto needs help vs 2 players in the corner, as has to go bc Richards isn't doing a damn thing. Hagelin has realized that he should probably go pick up Carter in front of the net. (he's the blurry guy who is actually moving)

still only a 3-on-5 at this point, the Devils D aren't involved in the play at all.



2-on-2 in the corner, Richards and Kreider are now loosely supporting the puck if it's won by the Rangers. Hagelin is in the right spot, but he's not really taking Carter, just puck watching.

and note how it's a 3-on-5 situation, the Devils D change i think, and never bother to get involved in the play. pretty ugly to give up a goal in this spot.



puck won by the Devils, perfect pass to Carter. oops, too late for the Rag$. Richards can't intercept, Hagelin's checking isn't nearly good enough. Lundqvist with no chance. Devils D still not around. yup, that's how you blow an important Game 5 at home with less than 5 minutes left in a conference final. major breakdowns with more than enough blame to go around.

and btw, this is a pretty good example of why Richards is overrated, overpaid, not an elite center, etc. he sucks defensively, always has. look at all the laziness and shortcuts here. did nothing, took no one, was painfully unaware of what was going on. didn't help his D at all. awful center play really.

but yeah, lol @ it being "all on Girardi", and lol @ Copernicus.

excellent post

Sure you did, and sure it was.

and the more i think about it, the more i really want to blame Broadway Brad for the whole thing. i mean look at picture 1 again:



when the other team has the puck, as the center, you're essentially a 3rd defender (to match up against their 3 forwards, ldo). so he has two choices, help out MDZ bc Girardi is oop due to the change, or if you wanna be lazy then hold that position in the slot and take whoever comes there (like the circled player Carter, who ends up scoring the goal, and seeing as how there's no one else around). Richards not helping MDZ means that Girardi has to go into the corner. ideally i'd prefer for BR to recognize the 2-on-1 there and get involved in the corner to support his D. if he did this, it would allow Girardi to take a more traditional spot in front of the net as Copernicus alluded to, and he probably would have done a much better job with Carter as the lone threat than Hagelin did.

but Richards does neither really, just stands around waiting for the puck to be won. look at him the whole way, what is he doing? nothing. Hagelin even has to come all the way across and take his responsibility in front of the net (fail that he got there but didn't prevent the goal). truly awful center play. with less than 5 to go, in a tied Game 5, of the ECF...

edit: unless maybe Torts' system has Richards and Hagelin swap defensive responsibilities or something, but didn't really look like it here

lol @ you. Help in the corners??? BS. His assignment there is in front of the net 100% of the time.

copernicus,

get your ****ing shinebox and your sack of nickels

dude, it's a 2-on-4 that turns into a 3-on-5. you absolutely cannot allow your team to get outnumbered 2-on-1 on the forecheck, beaten in the corner, and scored on. the puck support here was atrocious. Richards' lack of activity complicated Girardi's decisions here. Girardi should be in front of the net, but he has to go help once no one else does. you don't just stand there and watch your guy beaten by two others.

the biggest fails are def Richards doing nothing, and Hagelin not being able to stop Carter from scoring.

Not sure what Kreider's responsibility is on the play, but it's a little humorous that he didn't take a single stride the whole time

and LOL copernicus

yeah strong side winger there? not much responsibility. basically just make sure that a D-man doesn't cut by you towards the net (not an issue here), otherwise just support the puck to some extent in case it comes out your way, and then go. he could be working a little harder if you wanna be a nit about it, but he doesn't have much else to do there other than hold the strong side boards in case of a breakout. he's just mostly waiting for the puck to be turned over so the whole time so they can go the other way.

i'd probably assign him like zero fault for the goal.

Copernicus drank from a vessel that stank

Apparently this dude's got all the $ecret $tat$ in the world but doesnt know wtf score effects are

or anything else about hockey

I just read 72s posts... Woof, get your shinebox is right

Kings system: Richards has to make a play on the puck.
Optimal: D pushes the puck behind the net while occupying the first forechecker. Center carries the puck out the other side and breakout.
If puck gets stopped on the boards, center has to go battle for it.

I'll match my hockey credentials against yours any time:

Level 3 coaching certification
Level 4 officiating certification
Head coach through Bantam level
Goalie coach through Midget level and at one of the top hockey prep schools in the East
Division 1 Goalie (admittedly when college hockey was a joke)

oh lol, he's a goalie...

explains everything.

It really does. Ill probably start liking him now

Henrik:

i remember when goose was the new goalie in town making people mad.

www.BehindCopernicus.ca?

as much as i hate the fact we're down 3-2, i love this thread.


henrik: my thoughts from a not qualified hockey fan. i have no credentials.

1. i don't think the change had any impact on the play.
2. this was 100% mistakes from hagelin and richards as well as girardi. a) ONE of them has to go help del zotto and ONE of them has to be aware of the devils' position. carter off a change is going to the net and either girardi went to go help del zotto. richards should have immediately parked in front of lundqvist rather than mozy on over to the puck without purpose.
3. hagelin finally realizes whats going on and swoops over (er...mozies on over) to get a stick on carter.

ofc, to be fair, nobody expected such a crisp perfect pass coming from that scramble in the corner (how often does that happen?), but still, lots of mistakes made. i blame richards most of all.

richards REALLY shouldn't have pinched over non-chalantly to the play. either get in there after you know somebody's covering in front or make sure the backdoor is covered. hagelin has to (halfheartedly) cover richards' guy b/c he was in no man's land between the goal line and the play.

lemme know if i'm off here as i wrote this from going back and forth from the video to this.

cliffs of the last 100 posts: lol rangers

if you don't think i don't know gaborik scored that goal, you're an idiot. plain and simple. take your credentials and go back to whatever forum you accumulated 9k posts in.