Edited May 18 at 9:51 a.m.
Quoting: Ship
appreciate that insight. so not a case of his voice growing old in the locker room? just curious, what happened in the 2022-2023 year that put them behind the 8ball and forced them to move some of those pieces. why were they losing some of those games pre-trade deadline in 2022/23
Primarily Left handed defense injuries, but also 23/yo Thomas and Kyrou skating their first full season of legitimate top 6 minutes/matchups:
For a substantial period of time during the beginning, then later a huge chunk of the middle of 2022/23 , Krug, Perunovich, and Scandella were on IR simultaneously.
We also did not love Mikkola, ejecting him at the deadline to NYR (who also did not retain him, validation), and did not have a deep left handed pool, relying on first time NHL late round draft picks and Nick Leddy. Our depth chart was Leddy, then the 6th and 7th option down the list who had no nhl experience for weeks at a time. It’s kinda shocking they did as well as they did, tbh.
Combine that with super young Thomas and Kyrou playing the role of grown player - it just was a very inconsistent team. I don’t personally recall ever hating their effort and felt they were competitive in a lot of losing games.
This was also usually extreme consistent parayko’s worst year, and it had been reported as a rumor he was fighting a back issue that has since resolved itself. But he may have been awful just because whatever partner he’d skate with was an anchor.
Chiefs breakout was very simple. It requires the weak side d to be netfront to take the pass of a board 50/50 win then advance the puck to either side forward creating rush. All the d has to do is stand there, positionally discourage opposition centering attempts, then convert a reasonably low risk one touch pass to a usually wide open forward, one side or the other. Mikkola, as an example, failed at this. He’d leave the slot/net front and approach the 50/50, which resulted in him being in nowhere’s land in the events of either team winning the 50/50, both giving up the net front to the opposition as well as providing no outlet for teammates. This is Mike Van Ryns system, unsure who your d coach will be, and your scheme will be diff prob, but this is very elementary and all teams rely on this to some degree. It makes sense for us to basically only zone and breakout in this manner cause Parayko is 6 foot infinity, Pietrangelo was big - were able to own our net front more than not, win a lot of 50/50 pucks in the corners. It also cuts down on random centering passes from opponents - the team is ready to convert those in a touch to a rush attack, so you can’t just fling em Willy Nilly. This breakout and Kyrou led to a whole lot of goals.
I don’t know that any coach could have changed the outcome. I’m pleased that the various individuals all developed well during the time. Matt Kessel seems like he may be able to become a legitimate bottom pairing D, something we’d probably never have figured out if not for this season. At the deadline we thinned our roster so much it was curtains: 3 top 6 skaters who usually filled 18 min or more gone with nothing at the moment coming back. The last chunk of the season a manufactured tank.