bustaheims said:
Even when Matthews was on the bench, it never really felt like Montreal was driving hard to the net. They did the same thing against Ottawa the other night. They kill time playing keep away hoping for a defensive breakdown instead of going for it. Not a surprise their OT record has been terrible this season.
Been thinking about this a little more and I wouldn't be surprised if this was actually a new tactic Montreal was trying in response to their poor OT record. Because that's 3 straight OT wins for them now including victories over Toronto and Edmonton. I re-watched their OT's against the sens and Oilers and it was a lot of the same thing we saw last night: playing keep away/dominating puck possession. Against Ottawa they literally restarted attempted zone entries 4 times within the first minute because they didn't like what they saw. Against Edmonton they left the offensive zone a number of times with possession of the puck in order to restart and try to catch the Oilers on a poorly guarded rush.
Sure it's a lot more boring than the run and gun 3-on-3 hockey we're used to seeing but I think it's actually a pretty solid tactic. It's a little late in the season to be worrying about 3-on-3 strategies but in the future it's something the Leafs should probably look into more, especially since their OT record (5-6) isn't exactly anything to brag about.
