Re: Maine offseason part II...Countdown to slightly above the Mendoza line.
Whitehead's "system" is just awful. Yes, every team has to play within a system and a game plan and play strong team D, but Whitehead's style takes it to a new level in terms of limiting inidivial playmaking. It just seems like guys skate around at full speed without generating any quality shots at 5 on 5. Maybe that philosophy works with a super efficient power play, but given the team's endless problems with shorties I'm not sure I want them going on the PP.
We don't need individual playmakers, we need guys who know how to utilize their teammates, move the puck around to generate scoring opportunities, and then bury them when they present themselves. This team did that in the first period, and got two goals out of it. Then for some reason, they stopped playing as a team and tried doing it all individually, and got nothing to show for it except blocked shots and stripped pucks.
I said it last year, but how can a team with Bob Corkum as a coach be so bad on face-offs? TIMMAY needs to swallow his pride and let Corkum instruct those guys on the bench as the game goes on. You saw shots of Comley prowling up and down the bench barking instructions, well, the best time to teach a player, especially a young player, is when the game is going on. He screws up, or misplays a situation, you sit him on the bench and say "this is what you did there, this is what you need to be doing in those situations". Otherwise, they keep making the same mistakes, and by Monday practice, it's kinda hard to generate a similar teaching situation out of the blue in the midst of practice. Practices aren't games, the intensity and the speed just aren't the same, and the exact situation is just a dim memory on film.
This team needs to play way more physical, especially on defense. So you might take a few penalties, better to be penalized laying some guy out rather than that ticky tack arm shove they called on Dimmen(?) Laying a guy out sends a message, and that message is, stay away from here if you want to have your head attached to you after the game is over.
