Prevent Defense

[Sepster 0]

Obviously, this thread is spurred by last nights game inwhich the Wings decided it would be better to sit back and kill off what is essentially an 18 minute Power Play by instituting the Prevent Defense. Even Mickey brought it up, "the Wings aren't forechecking, they're going 1-2-2, it's way too early for that!"

What I'd like to know is your opinion on if the Prevent works? Include all sports, basketball, football, etc.

My opinion? I'd say teams that get a lead and then go into the Prevent Defense have about a 70% failure rate. Nothing scientific here or any stats to back it up, just years of watching sports.

It seems that, the majority of the time, when teams stop playing the way that got them into the lead and go defensive they either lose the game or come very, very close to losing it.

More than anything, that cost the Wings the game last night, and it has cost many teams a whole ton of games over the years.

[Yemack 1]

1-2-2 sucks in away game in playoff. we are just letting other team find the holes in our defense and let them gain their momentum until we break down.

I read couple news article about why players think we lost last night. They were saying 'oh we gotta do this better' 'gotta be smarter' 'better defensivly'

you know what. IT DOESN'T MATTER! do you think Lilja intend to give puck away to Selanee last season? do you think it isn't going to happen again? It happened because NOT what we didn't do well but it happened because what other team forced us to do.

We might think our team has impenatrable defense but when the season is on the line, people will try their best to beat the system run by people.

Another thing, we start to lose momentum by going to defensive stance. While this allows other team to gain morale and energy (which is more dumb in away game in playoff hockey because they are going to get momentum even when they are not doing anything due to crowds. taking the crowd out of the game is also important)

If we are going to shut down mode, we should be way more active. It seemed like we are taking away their space and trying to be sound positionaly. However we are not taking away their time. We have to be right on top of loose pucks and keep hitting them. IMHO this is the only area Lidstrom is lacking little bit and I think it is taking effect on our team somewhat. TAKE THE BODY

Anyway sitting back could have worked .. maybe not. It didn't work last night and we got burned. So here is my bash.

[Jericho613 74]

I don't think prevent defense ever works, especially in hockey. Hockey is all about forechecking, and I think the wings just underestimated the Preds last night and got comfortable with the 3-2 lead. It was a wakeup call for the wings and they should be better tomorrow. Go Wings!!!!!!!!!!!

[OsGOD 3]

We always play sit back on our 1 goal lead... that makes for the most exciting hockey.

Whine Gretzky actually got all the GM's on the horn and told them he is absolutely furious that teams would go up by 4 at any point of a game (IN THE PLAYOFFS NO LESS) so welcome to Gretzky ruled scoring!

[Opie 308]

I am a much bigger fan of the Dime defense, I like having speedy DB's to cover the WR's.

Out Sorry, yeah I like the box plus one!

[awingsincebirth 0]

I think that a prevent defense CAN work, but it takes a real devotion to the system to the point that a team's strategy becomes to hopefully score the first goal and then to sit on it (think Dallas vs. Vancouver last year). If teams fully buy into the system and work hard to perfect it, it can be both effective and suicidally boring.

Teams who play other systems, especially as well as the Wings play puck possession, are not likely to be very effective at playing prevent. This really leads you to question why we opted to play a style that we are not particularly good rather than playing the style that won us the Presidents Trophy this year. If we would have played our game, in all likelihood we would have had possession for the majority of the 3rd, and hopefully generated a few more scoring chances and got some insurance. Instead, we played a style in which we just sat back and waited for the Preds to tie it up, praying that the clock would bail us out before that happened.

I did not like the decision, as I'm sure none of us did, but I'm sure that Babs & Co. realize they made a miscue and don't do it again. The way that we've been blowing leads in the series, I can really see Babs getting on the boys to keep their feet on the peddle until that final buzzer sounds. I think we're well overdue for a 4-0 or 5-1 game. Getter done boys.

Go Wings!

[C-Dub 0]

I like the defense where they don't just stand around waddling their sticks left to right staring at the guy that has the puck. That one seems to suck every time.

Edited April 15, 2008 by C-Dub

[OsGOD 3]

I like the defense where they don't just stand around waddling their sticks left to right staring at the guy that has the puck. That one seems to suck every time.

You need to then find another team to watch then

[Feldmarschall 9]

I think you're right here. It amazes me that so many teams use a hard forecheck to shut us down (i.e. Chicago) and the team's leadership absolutely refuses to do the same while in pressure situations. Giving up half the ice when the other team's defense still has the ability to make long passes from their redline (and Nashville's defense does this rather well) is just stupid. We've got so many quick forwards that can get in hard on the forecheck and still make it back to our zone, there's no need for a 1-1-3 or a 1-2-2.

[Ozzie30 170]

I don't think prevent defense ever works, especially in hockey. Hockey is all about forechecking, and I think the wings just underestimated the Preds last night and got comfortable with the 3-2 lead. It was a wakeup call for the wings and they should be better tomorrow. Go Wings!!!!!!!!!!!

[Learn2LuvIt 252]

"Prevent's" Winning

[Guest ForeChecK]

i want 5 players forechecking at the sametime tbh.. noway they canget past the wall of destruction.

[C-TownWing 0]

One sort of underrated drawback to the whole thing--when it does fail, it hard to quickly adjust. Look at how much trouble we had getting any kind of offensive rhythm back after the tying/winning goals, even just enough to keep the puck in the zone long enough to get Dom out. You can't just turn it back on after 15 minutes of chipping it in and backing up.

But yeah, I hate it in any sport. Keep doing what go you the lead in the first place.

[wingsfan75 2]

I totally agree that the prevent defense shouldn't be used that early in the game. The one thing that bothered me more than that was after the 4th goal by the Preds we stopped making quick tape-to-tape passes. We just let up completely. They swarmed all over us. This is not the first time nor, I suspect, the last time I've seen this. Why didn't we become the desperate team at that point and forecheck the crap out of them to get the lead back? That give-up attitude drives me nuts. It's playoff time for crying out loud!

Ditto on the post above.

Edited April 15, 2008 by wingsfan75

[GoWings1905 2,694]

Prevent defense is the reason the Red Wings are not up 3-0 today...

[GMRwings1983 8,804]

As I posted yesterday, Sirdrake gave me an idea. Chelios should have just fallen on the puck and wasted the 4 minutes remaining off the clock.