Edited Dec. 10, 2019 at 5:14 a.m.
Here is some PRO SAP INSIDE LOOK ANALYSIS about
(just kidding, it's my own take on the "downfall")
I expected this bad hockey from before the season started(still make the playoffs easy though because of bad atlantic division), my estimation was like 40 games needed... now it's looking like we need a lot more to play good hockey...
I copy paste from another topic:
Coaching problems. Our goal since september = defensive team.(said by organization members,coaches,gm,players... ) Result = top5 worst defensive team in the NHL.
They said today before Islanders game. It will be a 1-0 type of game in pre-interviews.
Result:1-5 loss...
They said same thing before Minnesota game... results 4-5 loss...
We just can't defend, other good teams defend in the middle of the ice. We defend on the outside and we go forward(to attack on the rush before we have the puck) instead going backwards. Watch a team like Arizona then watch Tampa. The difference = night and day.
Last year we didn't try to defend at all and every team just gave up the game vs tampa after a while = 62 wins super easy,could have been 70 wins... in playoffs they didn't give up the game. Result = 0-4 sweep...
So when you have a coach who never focused on defense and tries it for the first time in his life to copy other teams. This is the result. Copycat stuff not always working....
So yeah, it's easy to say just give up instead of 20 danger chances/ night let's give up 15 only... Results sometimes: giving up 23 scoring chances... After sometime it will get better i'm sure, but until then we look like a bad team... It's a learning process, but i'm just not sure Cooper can just be a "Cooper 2.0" ever...
It's like in the NFL:
Bill Bellichick is the best coach, what he does: = focus only on defense. So if you go to him in 2014 and say, let's focus on offense from 2015... the results would be: New England not winning any superbowls anymore...
It's hard to do a 360 degree turn and expect good results... Some night he(cooper) goes back to same routines vs bad teams. Results: 9-3 win, 7-1 win... but those are meaningless games, when game is close, we just lose, because we just don't defend well enough, like 10-15 other teams can... St. Louis,Islanders,Boston,Washington,Carolina, etc...
Yeah on top of that it doesn't help when we have:
Schenn:AHL caliber defender, who gifts every 2nd game a free goal to opponent...
Rutta:Chicago wanted to get rid of him... i wonder why...
Shattenkirk:A buyout caliber defender(gets pushed around - takes big hits & goes down = not strong enough = he is all about offense = not what we need)
Cernak:down year
Serg: still leaks in his defensive game
Coburn:regressed really hard this year due to age(buyout caliber defender)
And we have forwards who just doesn't wanna skate back and block shots/disrupt the opponent = TO DEFEND. They are there sometimes, but they are not trying to give the opponent trouble = big scoring chances coming when they are on the ice. Middle ice = nobody there from tampa every once in a while = easy goals for opponents
Here is a list:
Stamkos = same like Matthews or Laine = non factor in D-zone in meaningful games
Kucherov = he never even tried to block shots,skates like a ghost 8/10 times in D-zone...
Tyler Johnson = same(size problems as well, too easy to ignore him for opponents= not what we need in our "new defensive" LUL system)
Gourde = same
Another problem:Goalie. Vasilevsky got his big contract = instantly goes for a down year = bad sv% and bad GAA stats... like 0.900 SV% and 3.0 goals/game allowed = 2 million $ caphit goalie stats...
There is also the penalties allowed/game issue which just unacceptable... Our goal is to take less penalties this year. Result = we take crazy amount of penalties...
We lost some players(Stralman,JT Miller) who were good defensively... Or good chemistry Girardi...
So the question is how we teach Kucherov or Stamkos to be Anthony Cirelli or Patrice Bergeron or Mark Stone... I think it's really hard once you past age of 24... but not impossible...
In a Nutshell most tampa players gifted offensively, but they are not gifted defensively with talent = you need to learn to defend. Until they don't learn it what to do when Matthew Barzal has the puck... they will just allow too many danger shooots = top 10 most goals allowed/game...
So if there are 20 players who need to focus on defense when opponent has the puck and only 10 really trying the results will be bad.
TLDR:We need time!!! or new players/ new coaches to fix our internal system, which is imprinted in every players brain = full attack mode / zero defensive responsiblity. You need balance to win cups and we don't have that... right now... but it can change... but it's probably not in 2019/2020 season...