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Mac's avatar

I should probably add: this is an absolutely fantastic article JFresh, and commenting on it is what got me to subscribe to this newsletter. Terrific stuff, and all of your previous posts are tremendous as well. I wish hockey conversations about analytics could be as nuanced and eye-opening as what I've read here, since I used to be super-reductive against it myself ("hurr durr who cares about fancy Corsi stuff just play with some HEART and CHARACTER", not that playing with heart and character are unimportant, of course).

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Chris's avatar

Theodore is not a play maker, as in making plays to free up other players on the team. He is highly skilled at bringing the puck up the ice but poor at distributing it when players are on the fly. They end up stuck at the blue line with no momentum. The more they have emphasized him bringing the puck up ice the less the seem to flow into the zone unless he takes it all the way, which happens once in 1000. Compare him to rookie defense man on vancouver. Very different style and very different use of speed and agility. My opinion, Shea needs to work on his passing while moving at full speed and distrubing the puck while others are at full speed. otherwise they just key on him and know it will be a dump in when he brings up the puck. Transition play has to be quick and crisp. The D can't take half the ice to get full speed. 3 or 4 quick strides and hit someone that is ahead of you at full spead. Once the forwards stop at the blue line momentum is gone.

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