As the use of analytics in hockey continues moving into the mainstream, one prevailing belief is that the more a team possesses the puck, the better.
That notion isn’t an absolute truth, though, in the eyes of Don Cherry.
“Everybody [says], ‘Why do they give up possession of the puck? They shouldn’t give up the possession of the puck — you have the puck, therefore you can score,’” Cherry said Saturday on the Coach’s Corner segment of Hockey Night in Canada. “Let’s see how the Bruins do it.”
Cherry was referencing a goal the Boston Bruins scored on Saturday night against the Ottawa Senators, in which Torey Krug blasted a slapshot from his own end that bounced off the wall behind the Senators’ net and onto the blade of David Pastrnak.
A moment later, Pastrnak deked Craig Anderson and buried the puck in the net.
“[Some people], they don’t like dumping the puck,” Cherry said. “Dump the puck in!”
Clearly, you do need the puck to score — but giving it up momentarily isn’t always a bad option.
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