frrom David Staples of the Edmonton Journal,
In the press conference, Holland was asked three times about the defensive or two-way play of stars Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, and whether the two need to do more in that area, just like stars such as Jonathan Toews and Steve Yzerman did in the past.
Holland finally dug into the topic after Sportsnet’s Mark Spector asked most pointedly about McDavid and Draisaitl: “Does the team need their defensive leadership more than their offensive leadership right now?”
“The answer would be yes, but I saw that happening…,” Holland said. “That was one of the things we talked about with Leon in the exit meeting Saturday morning before we left the hub, Dave Tippett and I, and I remember one night in February in Carolina and there’s a puck turned over, and how Leon buried his head, and it was a two-on-one and he ended up killing the two-on-one just out of sheer determination to backcheck and to play defence. So they are getting better. They are getting better. But I also think in this playoff series we were playing against battle tested. Some players there had won three Stanley Cups. They had to learn that too, and we’re learning it. And you’re focusing on the two guys, but certainly our entire team, we’re learning that defence is as important as offence in terms of going for long playoff runs.”
more from Holland...
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