Normally I would wait until after the series to comment but I am interested to see what adjustments are made by Lowell and the coaching staff after last night's game.Overall , I believe the team worked hard and had some chances early in the game to score and there were some positives. Again some key areas came through to me and was the real difference in the game. Neutral Zone play, creating offensive zone chances and specialty teams were the difference and were the areas that clearly distinguished the 2 teams. Both goaltenders were very good as the game could have easily been a higher scoring game.
BU clearly was the better team through the neutral zone and clearly understand puck support. Their defence transition the puck very quickly to the forwards and they always have people supporting the puck where they can make a 5 foot pass to some one with speed. There was some occasions last night where I thought the Lowell Def stood up and had good gap control and actually interrupted the transition. However more times that not, the gap was too big. This allowed BU to make easy entries into the zone and attack with both width and depth at the blue lines. Back pressure on the BU puck carrier wasn't too bad but too many options were left unchecked through the NZ by the Lowell forwards. On the contrary, our transition game was good at times but not consistent and at times was slow without good crisp passing. Further when the forwards got the puck they were isolated and did not have the puck support or good lateral pass options available to them. They struggled on entries at times and as we saw in the second half of the game failed to create many scoring opportunities especially 5 on 5.
In the offensive zone, I think Lowell exposed a weakness that BU is vulnerable off a quick counter attack and did have some quality scoring chances early in the game when we did not allow BU the opportunity to re-group and re-set. However, the last 3 games we have really seen a bit of a "panic" at the net where we are flailing at pucks, rushing our opportunities resulting in missed nets. It takes some composure and skill to settle the puck down and make plays in tight spaces and we need to start taking advantage of these opportunities knowing that we are not going to get a whole bunch of these against the good teams and as things tighten in the playoffs. The other thing that we need to see is the forwards not allowing themselves to get tied up, being able to release off checks and from the pressure and being able to find the soft areas where they can score some goals. Finally we hear the coaching staff talk about puck management in the offensive zone. Last night Lowell did have some zone time and for a few extended periods of the game but the latter half, the majority of time was spent on the perimeter and outside the dots. It is ok to cycle the puck but when you continue to cycle and cycle over in the same area of the ice, this gives time and allows teams to close and adjust. If you watch the NHL or good offensive teams and I think BC does this better than BU, they cycle, change the point of the attack and/or make a strong play on net. It doesn't always have to be a pretty play on net. Last night, our cycle after cycle in the same corner or behind the net just allowed BU to adjust and then we couldn't penetrate inside the dots or to the net. Finally our defence have to get shots through to he net and hit the net. Too many are being tipped, blocked and taking too long to get away. Some of this is the fact that the puck needs to be moved quicker from low to high. A extra stickhandle or an extra couple skating strides by the forwards before moving it again allows BU to adjust and close the shooting lanes. The defence also have to make quicker decisions with the puck and take a stride laterally to change the shooting angle.
Basically the PP was ineffective last night and really struggled again with the BU pressure and not being able to make tape to tape passes and re-adjusting to the puck.
Any time you spend the majority of time in scrum facing the boards fighting for pucks you know your pp is not going to be effective. There were a few sequences where they had some possession but again the control was all on the perimeter with little penetration to the high scoring areas.
Those are my observations from last night. I am curious to see what adjustments will be made. I am hoping home ice and large crowd will see us to victory tonight. If not it would seem that my original prediction of finishing 5th and not making the NCAA Tourney may hold true.
