It sounds like the Blackhawks are going to make some changes to the way they play defense on Friday, at least the way they play D against defending Stanley Cup champ Lightning on their own end.
The Hawks lost their season opener in Tampa Bay 5-1 on Wednesday and don’t want to make the same mistakes twice in their second of eight matchups with the Lightning this year.
Blackhawks head coach Jeremy Colliton explained the problems with covering the defensive zone of the team in the first game.
« It wasn’t good enough, » said Colliton of the coverage in the D-Zone on Friday. « We addressed this yesterday and in the end there are only a couple of situations where we were late: too late to close and too late to read, too late to switch and it will result in you opening ice cream. »
Colliton also said a big part of the problem is sales in the offensive zone.
According to Hawk’s defender Nikita Zadorov, the team discussed that the blueliner should play differently if they get another bang in the Blitz.
« Me have the feeling that we were definitely not there [Wednesday] and I think we spoke today, we had a video meeting, I think it will be repairable, « said Zadorov before the competition on Friday. « We’re going to be more aggressive against their strikers today, giving them less time and less space in the D-zone. »
Ref: https://www.nbcsports.com
