Paul McCann: Game Night in Smashville - Wild Night on Broadway

I never thought I'd see the day where the problem isn't scoring...it's defense.

Our defense has been overrated for a few years now. They haven't been garbage, just average and maybe a little bit over, but elite only in the minds of the modern day experts who only judge defensemen by how much offense they produce. Cynics will want to blame trading Subban as the reason the defensive looks crummy right now, but those same people will conveniently forgot this team struggled a lot defensively last season too with him in the lineup. I knew the team would take a step back defensively after trading a guy of Subban's caliber and replacing him with a rookie who's only played a handful of NHL games, but I didn't think it would be quite this bad this early. Lavy's system is partly to blame too, it's susceptible to counter attacks and odd man rushes when things go south. It's an unfortunate trade off you have to make when running an offensively aggressive system. Been that way for a few years now, and fortunately for the Preds, the goalies have traditionally been good enough to erase a lot of those lapses. (Take Tuesday for example) At least now we finally seem to have the offense we were promised since the day Lavy took over the bench. The D needs to straighten itself out eventually though. You don't win championships without at least a competent defensive game. Look no further than Toronto to see how far all the offensive talent in the world gets you when you absolutely suck on D.

Our defense has been overrated for a few years now. They haven't been garbage, just average and maybe a little bit over, but elite only in the minds of the modern day experts who only judge defensemen by how much offense they produce. Cynics will want to blame trading Subban as the reason the defensive looks crummy right now, but those same people will conveniently forgot this team struggled a lot defensively last season too with him in the lineup. I knew the team would take a step back defensively after trading a guy of Subban's caliber and replacing him with a rookie who's only played a handful of NHL games, but I didn't think it would be quite this bad this early. Lavy's system is partly to blame too, it's susceptible to counter attacks and odd man rushes when things go south. It's an unfortunate trade off you have to make when running an offensively aggressive system. Been that way for a few years now, and fortunately for the Preds, the goalies have traditionally been good enough to erase a lot of those lapses. (Take Tuesday for example) At least now we finally seem to have the offense we were promised since the day Lavy took over the bench. The D needs to straighten itself out eventually though. You don't win championships without at least a competent defensive game. Look no further than Toronto to see how far all the offensive talent in the world gets you when you absolutely suck on D.
- Squatchy

The comments on the Preds "great defense" goes back to the Trotz years and that's because there was no offense.
Ellis, Josi, Ekholm, Hamhuis were all on this team back in the Trotz years.
This is a result of the Lavy's system.

"Ellis, Josi, Ekholm, Hamhuis were all on this team back in the Trotz years."

First Ellis is overrated and to small, second Hamhuis is just worthless, never should have been brought back to nashville, hes the new and less improved version of Erat, maybe we can trade him to Washington.

Any event, I think our defense core is lacking size. The good thing is we can improve the Defense still.

"Ellis, Josi, Ekholm, Hamhuis were all on this team back in the Trotz years."

First Ellis is overrated and to small, second Hamhuis is just worthless, never should have been brought back to nashville, hes the new and less improved version of Erat, maybe we can trade him to Washington.

Any event, I think our defense core is lacking size. The good thing is we can improve the Defense still.
- PREDX1

Ellis is small, and is living off the Cup run reputation. I thought they should've moved him in the off season and got a bigger body in return, but what do I know. Hamhuis was solely to mentor the young guys, he's seen better days.

They have been living on reputation, but there was a time when they were really good. But philosphy changed when Lavy came in. I think that offensively, once our Admiral guys are ready, this team will be dangerous. But they gotta get bigger defensively. Peks is still Peks but no telling when age will show up, and Juuse hasn't looked very good. Maybe they should try that guy from Tampa, the supposed head case.

Who knows.

The comments on the Preds "great defense" goes back to the Trotz years and that's because there was no offense.
Ellis, Josi, Ekholm, Hamhuis were all on this team back in the Trotz years.
This is a result of the Lavy's system.
- wrister

Yes, Trotzy's defense was great, but they've been coasting off that reputation ever since he left. He also had Weber and Suter in their primes, two guys who were actually very solid in their own ends at the time, and Hamhuis when he was far more effective than he is now. That's not really here nor there though. The Preds current reputation on defense is for mobile puck moving defensmen who can produce offense, and it's either ignored that most of them were mediocre defensively or just assumed they were better than they are. Ekholm and Josi are solid, but Ellis fell off a cliff last year, Hamhuis is a shell of his former self, and Fabbro is still a young kid learning to play at the NHL level. I agree that Lavy's system is responsible for some of the defensive struggles, it's not the only reason. You could also say the system helped Josi and Ellis fully realize their offensive potential. Comparing Trotz's defense to the current one isn't really a fair comparison. Even if Josi, Ekholm, and Ellis were there, they were still mostly green and hadn't come into their own yet.