The Hockey News’s Sam Stockton spoke with Red Wings coach Todd McLellan and defenseman Moritz Seider regarding the “connectivity” with which the team is playing as 5-man units which skate up and down the ice as one:
Defenseman Moritz Seider pointed out that the difference between a connected and scattered team is apparent when the Red Wings break out of their own zone, telling The Hockey News yesterday, “I think you can definitely see that on the ice. When things are clicking pretty easily, everybody’s in their spots, and you beat the forecheck pretty well. When it’s not going that well, the defensive team is not breaking out as clean, the forechecking team gets a stop somehow—maybe intercepts a pass and then stuff breaks down from there…We can eliminate those things by just being clean, on our tape, making it real hard for the forechecking team to just intercept anything or even get a piece of a body anywhere.”
Seider also noted that connectivity is valuable for more than just clean exits, as it sets up Detroit for success as they enter the attacking third of the rink, observing, “I think [a clean, connected breakout] just sets up our forecheck even better. Obviously, if we can break out the puck clean and have a five-man unit coming up the ice, even though we may not enter with full possession every time, the odd time we have to chip it in, we’ll be able to recover it even faster with five guys on the offensive side of the red line.”
