Florida paid a heavy price for their coach’s decisions on Saturday, writes Urheilu’s NHL reporter Tommi Seppälä from Florida.
SUNRISE. Even the warm-up showed what was to come. In the previous match, the Vegas striker By Keegan Kolesar the Florida pier caught under heavy tackle Matthew Tkachuk was not fit to play. Tkachuk didn’t shoot properly in the warm-up even once, which revealed a likely serious upper body injury.
However, the truth was even harsher than expected.
Tkachuk couldn’t and really didn’t even want to play the game properly. The star player’s skating was powerless and he was not about to get into any fighting situations. And what’s even worse, the player simply gave up situations and let pucks pass by to avoid contact.
In the first couple of periods, Vegas practically created a scoring opportunity for every exchange Tkachuk played. However, the coaching did not react to the situation in any way. Vice versa.
The head coach Paul Maurice played Tkachuk for two minutes in the first set, for example Alexander Barkov more. The coach’s actions in this regard were completely unsustainable and damaging to the team.
Playing through injuries has always been a part of hockey, but now the hockey game got completely out of the coaching’s hands. Tkachuk clearly hurt his team more than he helped. It’s unbelievable that a seasoned coach like Maurice let this happen in a game where Florida was facing a must win.
A tough price
And Maurice didn’t succeed anyway.
Barkov’s ineffectiveness before the fourth game is in itself pointless to sugarcoat, but at the same time, everyone who followed the series saw that the captain did not get a total sleep from his chain friends, From Anthony Duclair and From Nick Cousinseven the most basic support.
It wasn’t until the end of the second set that Maurice decided to move Barkov to the side by Anton Lundell and by Sam Reinhart – Besides Barkov, the only relatively warm Florida forwards. It was only at this point that it was understood to move Tkachuk aside as well.
And no matter what, just a moment of change and Florida scored their first goal. The flow and nature of the game changed completely with the chain change and in the third period the trio created a lot of scoring chances. The equalizer was very close a few times.
However, Kiri was not enough. Florida paid a heavy price for their coach’s decisions. Five sets in two matches played in Florida was too long to wait for Barkov’s sleepy chain friends to wake up. Barkov’s chain created one scoring opportunity in five sets. One. All the grounds for the changes existed long before.
And yet Florida had everything it took to turn this match around as well. It is appropriate to ask, would the home team have remained in a 0–3 loss position without the lame Tkachuk, who played with a slipper attitude, and with the new chain formations made as a result?
Hockey can never be played at this level the way Matthew Tkachuk was playing it now. And the reason is not the player’s, but the coach’s.
On Tuesday in Vegas, Florida’s season will be suspended for the second time this spring. Then you can’t let Tkachuk, who is as badly injured as today, into the rink. In addition to that, Barkov’s chain must be kept together and the Finns, who are playing at a fantastic level, have a big responsibility and a lot of starts at the attacking end.
Maybe in Vegas, Lundell could already fit into the top six, who will look for an equalizing goal at the end of the match in a losing position, if Florida finds itself in such a situation. Considering the level at which Lundell plays, consistently being the best on his team, it’s truly baffling that Maurice didn’t find him a single second of playing time in the last two and a half minutes of the foursome.
With Barkov and Lundell, Florida will rise or fall on Tuesday.