Thursday night’s game between the Edmonton Oilers and the Detroit Red Wings, which ended in a 3-2 overtime loss for the Oilers, was a cause for some confusion.
On the one hand, the Oilers had a 47-17 advantage in shots, and Connor McDavid, the captain of the Oilers, scored a goal that was worthy of a highlight reel. On the other hand, there was the impression that Detroit had done a reasonably good job of capturing the player who is without a doubt the best player in the world, despite the fact that the shot margin was so small and the moment of individual brilliance had occurred.
“Grade A chances, he was involved in almost 13,” Derek Lalonde said this afternoon about McDavid’s performance. “He was involved in almost 13 situations.” As we progress through the games, we only give up 12 or 13 on average…In spite of the fact that it was unbelievable to watch it again, I believe that we did a pretty good job of limiting it, not giving them a second chance, bending but not breaking…In a very long time, I have not witnessed a player take control of a game in such a manner.
Even though Dylan Larkin’s line, which included Lucas Raymond and David Perron, as well as Moritz Seider and Jake Walman, were the ones who bore the brunt of the McDavid matchup, Lalonde was pleased with what he saw. Despite this, McDavid was still able to find a way to burn the Red Wings.
Thursday night’s game between the Edmonton Oilers and the Detroit Red Wings, which ended in a 3-2 overtime loss for the Oilers, was a cause for some confusion.
On the one hand, the Oilers had a 47-17 advantage in shots, and Connor McDavid, the captain of the Oilers, scored a goal that was worthy of a highlight reel. On the other hand, there was the impression that Detroit had done a reasonably good job of capturing the player who is without a doubt the best player in the world, despite the fact that the shot margin was so small and the moment of individual brilliance had occurred.
“Grade A chances, he was involved in almost 13,” Derek Lalonde said this afternoon about McDavid’s performance. “He was involved in almost 13 situations.” As we progress through the games, we only give up 12 or 13 on average…In spite of the fact that it was unbelievable to watch it again, I believe that we did a pretty good job of limiting it, not giving them a second chance, bending but not breaking…In a very long time, I have not witnessed a player take control of a game in such a manner.
“Larkin’s performance was satisfactory to me. The game that Mo played was satisfactory to me. What’s more, [McDavid] completely dominated the game. Lalonde stated that, on the whole, we seemed to have done a pretty good job.
“I think it’s a good mix of staying patient and then waiting for the right moment to strike and hopefully get the puck,” said Seider in reference to the process of attempting to prevent McDavid from scoring. When I was playing against McDavid, I had a great time of it. To the best of my knowledge, we did a really good job of attempting to silence him as much as we possibly could. It was just a coincidence that Zach Hyman scored the goal right after the face-off. He had a lot of bounces, and then he just managed to find a way to get the puck behind the net. As for the other goal, I believe that a lot of people thought it was going to be an offsides, but we just can’t stop playing, and I believe that is something that we need to take away from that game. To summarize, I believe that we did a pretty good job overall. We succeeded in finding a way to give ourselves a chance to win the game, despite the fact that their power play was running hot.
McDavid’s unique ability to force a team to concentrate on defense at the expense of offense was explained in greater detail by Andrew Copp, who provided a more in-depth explanation.
“Defending can end up taking up a significant amount of your attention,” Copp explained. “They are able to maintain possession fairly well. They are flying high, but in the offensive zone, I believe you saw Hyman quite a bit. That second line was really holding pucks low and forcing us to defend for extended periods of time. I believe that to be the most significant factor, and once you do manage to get the puck out, you are either dumping and changing or you are not as alert on the forecheck as you should be. Consequently, that is quite cyclical. When you are able to maintain possession of the offensive zone for extended periods of time, it really puts the team back on their heels and convinces them to become a little bit more supportive of the strategy. When you have to work shift after shift, it is difficult to overcome. When something like that occurs, it is difficult to get rushes, and it is difficult to maintain a forecheck. At the time, I thought we did a respectable job, but the team that we have is really impressive. The first thing we need to do is defend, and we need to defend harder. We also need to end plays earlier, so that we can start forechecking at the 20-second mark rather than waiting until the 40-second mark to get going.
Even if you are successful in chipping the puck out of the zone, it is not enough to guarantee your safety. A reload is all that stands between McDavid and danger, provided that he does not force play to the opposite end of the rink.
“The hardest thing is that you gotta make plays against them,” Copp said further. “You can’t just chip it out because then McDavid will cross over, wheels with speed, and they will come right back at you,” the coach said. You can’t just defend, chip, defend, chip, defend, chip, defend, chip, defense, chip. Defend, make a play, then chip and forecheck hard and force them to defend. You have to do all of these things. The distinction lies in that.”
Copp responded to a question about whether it is difficult to concentrate on one’s own game when one is so preoccupied with a player such as McDavid by saying, “You try not to.” In my opinion, you should be extremely vigilant whenever you have possession of the puck, particularly when you are moving through the neutral zone. As a result of any turnover, they may cross over, and once they do, they are no longer there. Offensive zone, you should make an effort to avoid forcing things, but you should make sure to maintain O zone time. The best way to make Connor McDavid feel like a human being is to force him to defend himself.
