A Proposed Solution to Defense in the NHL

I wanted to touch on the big buzz-story around the NHL that began this past Wednesday, the night of November 9th.  In a game against the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Philadelphia Flyers refused to even attempt to break out of their zone on multiple occasions because the Lightning were playing defense in what is known as a 1-3-1 formation, in which one defender pressures the puck-carrier, three defenders stand at the red line to break up long passes, and one defender stays deep in their own zone in order to be the first to the puck in the event that the offensive team dumps the puck into the zone.  The Flyers, when presented with this defense, simply stayed in their own defensive zone and skated around with the puck for whole stretches of the game.  I thought it was a funny little story, a quirky side-show that happened in Florida when Flyers Coach Peter Laviolette realized that he had no idea how to beat a "neutral-zone trap" defense.  "No big deal," I thought, watching the highlights.  "Chris Pronger is a whiny bitch whose team refused to play, thus exposing and even highlighting the limits of Peter Laviolette's competence.  And they lost the game and looked like dipshits in the process, so justice is served!"  What produced a stronger reaction from me and drives me to address the subject here, is that the media (and according to Pierre LaBrun, the General Managers) are widely blaming the Tampa Bay Lightning for the lull in play!  That absolutely dumbfounds me.

Game 12: "Free Jumbo!"

Congratulations to San Francisco on its first World Series Championship! Yeah, Man. Sweet. Maybe I'll buy a ball cap. Okay the real news, though, is that Joe Thornton has been suspended for two whole games! For hitting some dude in the head! The replay looks bad, too, like, really bad. Thornton, stepping out of the box after serving a penalty he didn't like,* drops his shoulder into Perron's head while Perron is moving 20mph, looking behind himself. In that respect it looked vicious. On the other hand, what was Joe supposed to do, let Perron skate by with the puck because he wasn't looking where he was going? In this respect, I think that the NHL is sending mixed messages. The only thing this suspension shows is that players are unclear on what the penalty is. They can suspend Joe as many games as they like to "send a message," but he still isn't going to know what he did wrong.

But regardless of the penalties, I was excited to see what the Sharks looked like without Joe Thornton on the first line/power play. Now, having seen the Tampa Bay game, I can say that they looked awesome! Power play was great, too. Couture fit right in on the first line (love that guy) and got a goal to put him right in the middle of the race for the Sharks' goal-scoring lead. I would also like to take this time to note that Jamal Mayers has been making a big impression on me. I think he's really added to the scoring potential of that fourth line, but, not only that, there have been several moments when a puck squirts loose, where all I can think is "Somebody ------- get that!", and Jamal Mayers turns on the jets and gets there first. He's far speedier than I expected. Of course, the only thing anybody could tell me about this guy when he signed was "Was he the guy who shaved his eyebrows into tiger stripes in the playoffs?" So my expectations weren't high.

Go, Sharks!

6-6-0

*and his first of the season