Quote:
Originally Posted by NYR1967
Is it just me, or did it seem like the 3 times the Rangers scored on the PP today, they carried the puck into the offensive zone, and when they didn't, they dumped and chased? Last PP aside, when Torts wanted to keep our skill players away from Sestitio and Hartnell's goonery, I was asking myself "Why the hell are they dumping?"
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Of course they would prefer to carry the puck in rather than dump and chase, but there isn't always a lane to carry the puck in, or a pass available to get the puck to an open man. When the other team is standing up at the blueline, if you don't dump and chase, you risk a turnover like the one Callahan had against the debbies.
That's why speed is so important. Why a transition game is so important. The faster you can go from defense to offense, the less chance the other team has to defend their blueline and the easier entry you will have into the zone. Watch our PP and see how often we set up behind our net, allowing the other team to set their defense, before we come out. We almost always dump the puck in that situation, if we don't lose it in the neutral zone.
We need to push the pace on the PP and we were much better at it yesterday. Prior to that, most of our "rushes" on the PP were painfully slow. It's no surprise that we had trouble gaining the zone and getting set up.
