Defensive breakdowns in the playoffs, Part 1

by Eric T. on May 10, 2011 3:00 PM EDT in 2011 NHL Playoffs

The Flyers gave up 3.5 goals per game in the playoffs, which is a big part of why their season is over. We've had a lot of talk about where to pin the blame -- on the goalies, on various defensemen, on the coaching and matchups.

This article will be the first of a series where we go game by game through the playoffs and assign blame on the defensive breakdowns. I'll assign each error a blame score from 1 (least bad) to 5 (worst). We can tally up the results and see who really had the most issues in the playoffs and think about what needs to be fixed.

After the jump, we'll look at Game 1 vs. Buffalo.

The defense was quite tight in this game; there were only three plays that I counted as really putting the Flyers in any serious jeopardy. That means I can go through each in quite some detail; in later games where they give up 10+ scary chances, I won't have that luxury.

The embedded video below isn't working right, so if it's not the right clip for you, here's a link to video for the first chance.

We'll pick it up here, with Meszaros carrying the puck up the ice.

Buf_game_1_chance_1_pic_1_medium

There's a Sabre in front of him, off the screen, so he can't go too much farther without getting into trouble. However, I think he needs to go one more stride to make the forechecker commit and give Carle a bit more space. He doesn't, and he compounds this by putting the puck a bit behind Carle with his pass:

Buf_game_1_chance_1_pic_2a_medium

At this point, Carle needs to send it right back to Meszaros. Unfortunately, he overestimates either how much time he has or how good his stick work is and tries to bring the puck out in front of him. It gets chipped away from him, and as the last man back, he's lucky this wasn't worse -- at least the puck went forwards when he lost it.

Buf_game_1_chance_1_pic_3_medium

I don't know how Giroux ended up on the ice here, but it really compounds things. A full-fledged odd-man rush is now developing.

JvR has hustled hard from the time of the turnover and gets there in time to provide some back-checking support, which allows Carle to come at the puck-carrier a bit more aggressively. In contrast, Giroux is flat-footed and coasts all the way to the net on this play, too late to help out in the event of a rebound -- it didn't matter here, but it irked me nonetheless. Bob is a bit deeper than I'd expect and is presenting a lot of the top of the net, but he shows off a quick glove and snags the high shot without a rebound.

Overall blame score: 2 points for Meszaros for putting Carle in the tough spot, 3 points for Carle for making the bad decision, and 1 point for Giroux for being face-down on the ice at a key moment.

>> Click here to jump to the second chance. We broke them up into pages to make this lengthy, image and video-heavy story easier to digest. <<

Tweet Comment 26 comments | 4 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

The videos for chances 1 and 2 don’t seem to be right.

Though it wouldn’t surprise me if one of those didn’t make the nhl highlights.

On the Mike Weber bandwagon!
Sabres took the scenic route, but they still MADE IT TO THE PLAYOFFS!!!1

by Ubiquitous on May 10, 2011 3:10 PM EDT reply actions

Aw, hell. The videos got garbled twice while I was putting this together. I’ll see if I can fix it.

by Eric T. on May 10, 2011 3:27 PM EDT up reply actions

Should be better now. I put in external links, just in case it regarbles.

by Eric T. on May 10, 2011 3:46 PM EDT up reply actions

Works for me, at least.

On the Mike Weber bandwagon!
Sabres took the scenic route, but they still MADE IT TO THE PLAYOFFS!!!1

by Ubiquitous on May 10, 2011 3:54 PM EDT up reply actions

I was also going to comment on the total lack of coverage by anyone on the first goal, but i see Eric already has that covered.

On the Mike Weber bandwagon!
Sabres took the scenic route, but they still MADE IT TO THE PLAYOFFS!!!1

by Ubiquitous on May 10, 2011 3:57 PM EDT reply actions

I love this site

You guys are the best. this is all great stuff despite the “garble” and “regarbles” thanks for working so hard guys

by Clinton92 on May 10, 2011 4:58 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs

I’m sorry but I’m going to jump to the case here.

Was it simply Pronger being out?

I just don’t get what happened to our Defense once the post game got started. We’d had a great year. We’d been fairly solid, and fairly solid in front of two not so great goalies.

Then we lost Pronger late in the season and we dropped off significantly.

Did we loose our confidence without him?

by CSneer on May 10, 2011 6:00 PM EDT reply actions

I don’t think that’s a question I can answer. My gut hunch is that no single player could have changed the result of the Boston series, but we’ll never know.

We may be able to speculate, I suppose — if we find that the players who struggle the most are the ones whose roles changed the most because of injuries, it might be fair to jump to some conclusions there. But let’s see what we come up with, rather than speculating on what we’ll be able to speculate on.

by Eric T. on May 10, 2011 6:52 PM EDT up reply actions

It wasn’t the only reason, but, IMHO, it was the main reason.

With Pronger, I think we have one of the best, if not the best, defenses in the league (and we have a power play that works). Without him, we’re still good, but each D combination is a little weaker. (As a side note, without a healthy Pronger in our line-up, the calls for getting a blue-chip goaltender make more sense; with a healthy Pronger, Bob plus Boosh should be more than adequate.)

We’re also finding out that many of our players were playing hurt down the stretch and in the playoffs. When I look at those who are/might be facing surgery in the off-season, I’m a bit relieved that we were able to get by Buffalo. I also understand now why we were no match for Boston. (In a way, I’m somewhat relieved to have been knocked out in the 2nd round – if we had somehow gotten by Boston, I think Tampa would have abused us embassasingly in the ECF.)

Eric will probably spot other problems with the D with these analyses (i.e., problems with match-ups and decision-making on and off the ice will certainly be parts of the reason we were so underwhelming in the defensive end). Ultimately, you win as a team and lose as a team, as the old sports cliche goes.

But, missing Pronger definitely complicated our run in the postseason (and the end of the regular season) – it isn’t the only reason we weren’t competitive against Boston, though. That will be evident when theses analyses are completed.

#1 Flyers fan in England (originally from Southeastern PA)

by Orange and Black Forever on May 11, 2011 4:45 AM EDT up reply actions

really enjoyable and clearly a lot of work, thanks

by Hans S on May 10, 2011 6:50 PM EDT reply actions

Glad you enjoyed it.

It does take some work, although the hardest part might be the psychological toll of watching some of these gaffes over and over.

by Eric T. on May 10, 2011 6:53 PM EDT up reply actions

This is both a great, informative feature and what must be painful self-flagellation.

Also, I would like to see blame points become a common advanced stat

by TomServo42 on May 10, 2011 6:59 PM EDT reply actions

I can imagine it would be hard to keep immersing yourself in the bad stuff, but if it’s any consolation you’re helping me understand the game better, and for that I thank you. As a TN native hockey was only a mild curiousity until I moved up to NJ and got hooked by the Flyers. Now I bleed orange and black, and I want to know the game to best of my ability.
I’m wondering if this series of articles will bear out what my eyes were telling me about Carle’s defensive chops. I freely admit I’ve seen him make a few fine defensive plays during the regular season, but in post season…not so much.

by A Flyers Phamily on May 10, 2011 7:14 PM EDT reply actions

Yeah, Carle was bad in the post-season. But… so was everybody. He was a lot better in the regular season.

Man-crushin' on Boucher since 1999 and Matt Calvert since May 2010
Broad Street Hockey - Makin' it look mean since 1967.
SB Nation Philly - Associate Editor

by Geoff Detweiler on May 10, 2011 7:42 PM EDT up reply actions

I thought Carle was alright in the Buffalo series? He was god awful in the Boston series.

Am I just imagining the Buffalo series though?

What surprised me is how poorly I felt like Timonen was playing. I’m not surprised to see he was injured.

by CSneer on May 10, 2011 8:46 PM EDT up reply actions

Near the end of the regular season, I turned into a huge Carle supporter. I knew he had good numbers, but I had assumed a lot of that was because of Pronger. Then I did a with-or-without-you analysis and found his numbers were even better without Pronger and got really psyched about him.

Then in both rounds of the playoffs, I saw a lot of issues from him. One of the things I’m going to be looking for in this analysis is an explanation for that — like maybe I’ll find that when the team was making a bunch of mistakes around him, he didn’t handle the chaotic situations very well? I dunno.

by Eric T. on May 10, 2011 9:40 PM EDT up reply actions

Last season was the first that Carle did well in the playoffs. I think that (unsupported by stats … how dare I?) Carle played well without Pronger in the regular season, but then desperately missed that security blanket when the chips were truly down. I also thought that somehow the complete lack of support by the forwards came down harder on Carle than any other defenseman – not sure how or why, but that was my impression. Always looked like he was all alone in the defensive zone, so his fuckups turned into huge problems – while Cobie’s could still be saved by Timonen, and SOD never gets ahead of anyone in the rush, so his partner was always safe.

Maybe it should read "reformedpenguinsfan" since I have retired my Lemeiux jersey ... and purchased an Orange and Black Pronger jersey.

by MaximumTalbot on May 11, 2011 11:38 AM EDT up reply actions

The problem is that people associate a bad playoffs with “unclutch”. Did Carle stand out as a negative this post-season? Absolutely. But so did Timonen. And Coburn. And Meszaros. And Hartnell. And Versteeg.

So attributing any sort of “Carle sucks”, “Carle can’t handle the post-season pressure”, or anything along those lines is not accurate when you can swap out “Carle” and insert any of the 19 skaters who played.

Man-crushin' on Boucher since 1999 and Matt Calvert since May 2010
Broad Street Hockey - Makin' it look mean since 1967.
SB Nation Philly - Associate Editor

by Geoff Detweiler on May 11, 2011 1:01 PM EDT up reply actions

This series makes me happy. I need something to keep me interested right now, with the let down finishing setting in. Thank you Eric, this will be much better than stupid Richards not a good Captain speculation…

My guesses… Carle hits worst of playoffs, Leighton is worst/60, and SOD shocks everyone by being our best Defenseman of the playoffs.

personally
I think the Devils and Kovalchuk should now sue the NHL for age discrimination. They’re essentially saying he CAN’T play until he’s 44.

Go Devils
by FrankG929 on Aug 9, 2010 5:15 PM PDT

by 02h32m01s on May 10, 2011 8:54 PM EDT reply actions

oh, and how long/many days are you planning to span this? 1 game a day?

personally
I think the Devils and Kovalchuk should now sue the NHL for age discrimination. They’re essentially saying he CAN’T play until he’s 44.

Go Devils
by FrankG929 on Aug 9, 2010 5:15 PM PDT

by 02h32m01s on May 10, 2011 8:55 PM EDT up reply actions

I’m guessing it’ll take something like 3-4 weeks to get through it all, but it depends on how much time I have.

by Eric T. on May 10, 2011 9:34 PM EDT up reply actions

Take your time, you have until the draft to break down 11 games.

On the Mike Weber bandwagon!
Sabres took the scenic route, but they still MADE IT TO THE PLAYOFFS!!!1

by Ubiquitous on May 11, 2011 9:36 AM EDT up reply actions

But there are a lot of goals and chances against in those 11 games…

Lightning strikes once, Hextall strikes twice!

by hintzy64 on May 11, 2011 2:03 PM EDT up reply actions

Sadly, this is true.

by Eric T. on May 11, 2011 2:05 PM EDT up reply actions

Great stuff. In terms of analysis anyway, not so good stuff to be seeing out on the ice.

Simon Gagne may move between towns, wear new jerseys and call different arenas home, but at the end of the day, he will always be a Philadelphia Flyer.

by PursuitOfLappyness on May 10, 2011 9:27 PM EDT reply actions

Are you going to do something similar with the power play? Not to put more work on you.

It was atrocious. The big thing that gets me is that the players don’t move there feet. They stand still and rotate the puck. Only the person with he puck moved at all.

Now I think you can make a good correlation to Pronger on that one.

by CSneer on May 11, 2011 5:55 AM EDT via mobile reply actions