Former NHLer Adam Graves was talking about the difference between today’s National Hockey League and the game that was played there when he first arrived as a player with the Detroit Red Wings in the late 1980s.
“The games were 6-5, 7-6, 8-7,… said Graves, a 51-goal scorer for the New York Rangers in 1993-94. “If you made a mistake, you'd just go out the next shift and try to get a big goal.…
Today, there’s often more goals tallied on a Saturday afternoon in the English Premiership than on any given night in the NHL.
“It's gone from a game of high scoring, to almost a soccer style, where you look for your break, get it, then go right back into your system,… Graves said. “You're thinking defence first. The system is the component that is the driving force. “You wait and it's the team that makes fewer mistakes that wins.…
Offense sells tickets. Defense wins games. A sports adage seemingly as old as sport itself and one that is certainly dominant in the current NHL game.
Consider how many times you’ve already heard some variation of this phrase during the current season:
Goals are hard to come by.
The NHL is all about defense. The people who run the teams in the league make it so.
Wings coach Jeff Blashill insists that with the parity in the NHL, coaches are left with no choice but to focus on prevention.
“I talked to (Tampa Bay Lightning coach) Jon Cooper on the way home (Wednesday) night and we talked about the fact that he probably teaches more defense than he ever has in junior because the differentiation in talent at lower levels sometimes is greater than it is here,… Blashill said. “The difference in talent is so minimal here that if you don’t play good defense you have no chance, so every coach is making sure they coach good defensively.…
It’s not simply a matter of personnel. Other elements in the game determine the style that’s become prevalent.
“There’s more to it,… Blashill said. “I think guys block more shots than ever because they’re better protected than ever. Lots has been discussed about the size of the net and goalie equipment. Goalie equipment is certainly way better than it ever was. The pants, chest protectors - until we find some way to slim it down it’s hard to score.
“That stuff I don’t worry tons about. We’ve just got to find ways to generate a little bit more ourselves.…
Blashill admitted that they could easily unearth paths to increased scoring chances and with it perhaps more goals but if it would come at the cost of surrendering more goals, it’s path they opt not to follow.
“We talk and work lots on offense here,… Blashill said. “We've talked lots about trying to add reward without added risk.
“Certainly we could create a situation where we probably could generate some more but we'd give up a lot more and as we talked about it's just almost impossible to win in this league now that way.
“We want to add reward without much risk. Again, I think if you play (Wednesday’s 2-1 loss to St. Louis) over with the chances we got, maybe one thing you'd say is we could have hit the net in the first. But in general, if you get those types of chances and give up the type of chances we got, we're going to win the game.
“So taking the emotion out of it, looking at the process of (that) game, if we play the same game 10 times, I think we win eight of them.
“We’ve just got to do it.…
Andersson Waived Forward Joakim Andersson was placed on NHL waivers Friday in order to allow the Wings some salary cap flexibility should they be required to recall a defenseman.
With Niklas Kronwall (knee surgery) out, the Wings have just six healthy defenseman on their 23-player roster and they don’t want to get into a jam like St. Louis did on Wednesday where circumstances left the Blues with only five defenders available for the game.
Roster Status Brad Richard (grandfather’s funeral) won’t play Friday as the Wings are in Buffalo to face the Sabres. Petr Mrazek gets the nod in goal.
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