EHF-It is only slightly about the first pass. The puck gets shot in, some of our defensemen go for it, reach it by the boards, and then, instead of quickly moving it out, they look around for what seems like a bit too long and end up trying to freeze it against the boards against 2 forecheckers. It is not a major failing-but it is something lots of young defensemen do trying to be a bit too wary of making an errant pass. I am a firm believer that offense is easy to learn but defense takes more time. I fully expect freshmen forwards to work into the system quickly and get a bit upset when they don't. But i am of the opinion that defense takes time to learn. The speed of the NCAA game is such that any young defenseman can be exposed rather quickly-i agree with those coaches who like to introduce their defensemen into the system slowly-pairing them with older more mature guys. I really think our defense is one of our strong points, but I have noticed the difficulty that some of our guys have with the faster speed of NCAA forwards as opposed to the level they just came from. This is one aspect that can be worked on and practiced. But it is extremely important. it is one of the fundamentals that we need to make automatic, just like taking faceoffs. The parity of the ECAC makes it imperative that we give nothing away and take nothing for granted. we have superb goaltending, solid defense(with a few things needing work) and more speed than I have seen on our team in a long time. If we can finish some of these plays we create, we are going to be a much tougher team to play than most predicted. I am very excited to see how Kenny G fits in. You can never be too deep in power forwards. Truly hoping everyone recovers fast so we can be at full strength for the upcoming road trips.
