NHL teams on defensive no fun to watch
Sports writers are often reminded that they don’t pay to get into sporting events.
So, the question to ask a reporter that attends NHL games all season long — which teams WOULD they pay to see?
After watching the Boston Bruins, one of the Eastern Conference elite, check and grind their way to a joyless 2-1 victory over the Ottawa Senators Thursday night, I can tell you the Bruins would not be on my pay-to-see list. And that’s a crime, considering they possess such high-end talent as Patrice Bergeron, Tyler Seguin and Brad Marchand.
Forget “Free Jake Gardiner.” Free Tyler Seguin from the defensive shackles that hold him down.
At the top of my payper-view list would be the teams willing to take risks, willing to play the game the way it was meant to be played — wide open, tapping into the talents of the world’s best players, without coaches squeezing the life out of hockey with an obsessive focus on eliminating opposition chances. What teams have fans buzzing this season? Chiefly, it’s the Chicago Blackhawks, the Anaheim Ducks and the Pittsburgh Penguins — clubs that showcase offensive talent and believe they can outscore the opposition. On nights that they don’t, they bounce back and do it the next game. Their philosophy is a winning one so far, and it helps they have the horses to turn loose.
Yes, their coaches get upset over mistakes and turnovers — a couple of late gaffes cost the Blackhawks in a recent showdown in Anaheim — but they also recognize the value in empowering Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, Sidney Crosby and Chris Kunitz to do what they do best. In Ottawa, the Senators have taken a similarly free rein with their all-world defenceman Erik Karlsson, and No. 1 centre, Jason Spezza. Unfortunately, with these two players — plus several more — lost to the club long term, the Senators have had to scrape and claw their way via systems play and hard work.
Due to their roster limitations, the Senators are excused for trying to win 2-1 every night and squeeze out overtime and shootout points where possible. Rightly, head coach Paul MacLean is earning consideration for the Jack Adams Award as he keeps Ottawa in contention. And it’s not for lack of effort that the Senators are challenged to score goals — they lead the league in shot attempts with 32.8 per game.
Outside of Ottawa, this notion of playing for loser points is rampant, especially in a shortened season when a tiny losing streak can be fatal. On many nights, teams aren’t playing to win. They’re playing not to lose in regulation. It’s obvious to the most casual of viewers.
Losses in overtime and the shootout are becoming acceptable for teams trying to gain precious consolation points, the single digit rewards for pushing a game past 60 minutes. Losses in regulation are devastating.
As Senators defenceman Chris Phillips said when the Bruins stole a regulation win with one minute and four seconds left in Thursday’s third period: “We definitely should have come out with something, felt we deserved to come out with something. It’s tough not to.”
The single point provides soothing comfort. Defensive hockey applies not just on the ice, but in the standings as well. Teams are tactically approaching games with the idea of gaining one point or more.
This cautious approach is affecting the product. Watch the final 10 minutes of a tied hockey game and note the diminishing scoring chances, both teams content to take their chances in overtime or a shootout. Ten of Ottawa’s 31 games have gone to extra time.
When the extra period or shootout ends well, fans go home happy. But nonpartisan observers wonder where the drama has gone. What was supposed to provide excitement, and did when it was first introduced to regular season games, overtime has become mired by the same conservative play that is plaguing third periods. When someone once suggested to Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson that perhaps overtime should drop to 3-on-3 play, Alfredsson suggested coaches would only figure out a way to play conservatively in that format as well. Halfjokingly, he said “1-on-1” might do the trick.
At least the Bruins, contenders for the Northeast Division throne, can claim their style is effective. And they have the bruisers — Milan Lucic, Nathan Horton, Marchand, Zdeno Chara — to grind teams down.
The New York Rangers are an example of a team that tries to suffocate opponents and are themselves slowing dying of asphyxiation.
One might argue that the Rangers’ controlling coach, John Tortorella, is blazing a trail to his own firing with his focus on defensive hockey. In Rick Nash, the Rangers acquired one of the biggest and best offensive players in the league. And what is the Rangers’ obsession? Blocking shots. Defensive zone coverage. Bunker hockey.
With 2.27 goals per game on average, the mighty Rangers are 29th in scoring, ahead of only the Columbus Blue Jackets (2.13).
While Nash is nearly a point per game player, he is hardly in his element, and Rangers fans might agree this is a team few want to pay to see these days.