Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Keystone Cops

The incompetence we just witnessed by the Rangers on LA's shorthanded goal is astounding.

The blame starts first and foremost with John Tortorella. It is almost unheard of to put five forwards on the ice for a power play. It is exponentially more stunning when one of the two forwards playing the point is playing his first game with the team. Foolish coaching decision. Rarely is it so easy to trace the blame for a goal directly to a coach.

As for Jokinen's little display in defending the two-on-one, it is difficult to know what on Earth he was thinking. One would think he had never received a lesson in defending a two-on-one in his life. One can only assume that he thought that Drury would somehow make up the three strides on Kopitar to negate him. But this is grasping at straws. 

Beyond hesitant, Jokinen looked lost and confused. It was all too easy for Kopitar to exploit Lundqvist's deep stance, when given a free ride to the net. Kopitar himself was surely taken off guard by the amount of room afforded him by Olli Jokinen.

No comments:

Post a Comment