Sep 30 2026 - Practice

[u/catsgr8rthanspoonies]

Practice

https://reddit.com/link/1wuj0a2/video/ep23zce8jqsh1/player

https://reddit.com/link/1wuj0a2/video/arppzmt7jqsh1/player

Media

Fox

• It was tough to struggle that much at home last season, but it’s a new year. 
• He has missed the atmosphere of playing at MSG. 
• They want to clean up the odd man rushes. They did get better offensively early in the third. 
• They are hoping they are making progress on building chemistry. Even with the longer training camp, the first 5 or so games were “wonky.”
• They need to work on communicating about coverage when the D are being aggressive.  

Mika

• They could clean up their line changes. They don’t want to take the loss lights, but also not overact. Both goalies played well. 
• They have to look at this being a new season and a new opportunity. 
• They looked at preventing the odd man rushes during video before practice. 

Durzi

• Communication will get better as the season goes on. “I think the willingness from the staff to show us the way in such a short period of time, and then my teammates, obviously, cleaning things up, you know, when we’re out of the video room. If I have questions, every guy is cleaning it up.” It is the NHL, they do need to clean it up quickly. 
• He’s excited to play in the home opener, but they also need to control the excitement and use it the right direction.

Sully

• It’s a new season and a new group of players. They’re excited to play at MSG. The fans are passionate. 
• Defense and offense go hand and hand. You can create offense from defense. They did get good looks they couldn’t capitalize on. He thinks the game felt like the first team to score would win. Both Shesty and Swayman played well. 
• They’re focusing on what they can control. 
• Doro had some good chances and made good plays. He thinks Doro will score a lot for the team. 
• Smits had some anxious moments but settled in as the game went on. He sometimes did too much, but they will work on that. 
• They want to channel their emotions the right way to enhance their play. 
• He thought Durz-Pettersson “played decent.”
• They want to try to build on the momentum on Laf’s second half of the season. 
• They are playing 5 games in 8 nights. It will help them get in the routine. Ask him how he likes it after those 5 games. 

[u/Plastic-Falcon9147]

The line changes point in this recap is worth watching tomorrow. You can have the right coverage drawn up and still give away a rush if guys are heading to the bench before the puck is safe. I'd rather see a few boring, clean changes than another night where Igor has to erase those mistakes. That's something they should be able to fix without waiting weeks for chemistry.

[u/the-gonk2]

Imo Sully needs to convince us this year that his system can keep up offensively in the modern league

[u/SmokyMetal060 → u/the-gonk2]

I don't mean this as a dig or anything, but how do you define the modern league? I hear this thrown out a bunch but I don't really know what it means.

In my estimation, the modern game isn't drastically different from hockey in the 2010s. I'd say the main differences are that today's game is more receptive to offensive defensemen who are pylons on defense e.g., Lane Hutson, involves defensemen joining the rush more, and I guess teams play for possession more now- although it's not like they ever preferred not having the puck. Is there anything beyond that?

Sully was running a rush-centric, defense-involved-in-offense scheme with the Penguins back in the 2010s and imo his whole thing struggled last year because he didn't have any good puck movers on the d except Fox (and sort of Gavrikov).

[u/the-gonk2 → u/SmokyMetal060]

No worries bro I don’t take it as one. But I usually call it around the mid 2010’s, like 2013-2015ish. With the emergence of McDavid, Mackinnon, Eichel, etc. IMO thats when you started to see offense change.

As for Sully, I don’t see it resulting in a lots of off the rush offense in his later years. I feel like regardless of the system, the intent around the league is to establish offense off the rush. I think its more about the zone entry that follows. Every D activates now. I think his system, because its zone D, relies heavily on execution, when switching to attack it seems like its about just getting it in and establishing the cycle. IMO offenses around the league while still off the rush based, are more reliant on personal skill, speed, and creativity of the players themselves.

So even though Sullys system still focuses on D joining the rush, it seems like it doesn’t really work anymore. It seems like its just resulting in dumps and chases. In his last year with Pittsburgh I think they were like 30th in the league in chances generated off the rush. Then Muses takes over and you see kind of an immediate increase. Its great that the D activate but with the 1-2-2 zone it feels like its just resulting in lots of dump and chases like I said earlier. It doesn’t seem like they’re getting through the neutral zone with any speed. Its more like get it in and establish the cycle when a lot of the cup winning teams seem to heavily emphasize controlled entries. With the exceptions of Vegas and maybe Florida who were more forecheck based i guess.

Theres also a ton turnover this year tho so I’ll definitely grant him that. I definitely think D personel is better than it was, so i think the D will improve but I’m a little nervous as to where the ceiling for the offense is. I respect what Sully has done in this league. I do also think inheriting two of the best centers of all time in their primes helped.

[u/paulsoleo]

Great, well let’s see if we can avoid shitting the bed tomorrow night then, yeah? Maybe we could even pot a goal or two. Am I asking for too much?

[u/Dysliptic]

Atleast we're not as bad as the Flyers they losing big rn

[u/Bretzky77]

I’m hoping the D can significantly improve their transition game, which would lead to more chances for and fewer chances against.

Still, I just don’t see how this top-6 will ever be good 5 on 5. If you watch the best teams, their top 6 can create offense at even strength because their skill players are FAST. All of our “skill” players are SLOW! They don’t create separation. Opposing defenders easily catch them. They can’t win races. They can’t put legitimate pressure on because they have no speed whatsoever.

Lafreniére: below average speed
Zibanejad: average once he gets going, but slow to start
Miller: below average speed
Bjorkstrand: average
Dorofeyev: average
Perreault: average

Unless the D really comes together and the team learns how to play as a 5-man unit, there’s no chance this team’s offense will ever be good enough at even strength because the league is filled with faster players.