You've got to play a solid game

You've got to play a solid game. I'm still reeling over last night's cup final. It didn't look like the Sens wanted it bad enough to play all out. It seemed as though they were holding back and hesitating too much. The Ducks played a solid series and a hard hitting solid game. I've seen what happens at the youth level when one team plays tough and intimidates another team into hesitating and outright avoiding pressure. I have always believed that you need a solid defense. They have to be able to skate with anyone. You want your defense to keep up with your opponent's fastest star players, skating backwards as fast and as well as the other team's offense skates forward. You also need a good center who can switch gears and play solid defense when needed. When you're behind a few goals and you play a man down, forget the boxing it up at crunch time with less than half the third period to go. You've got to go for the points. Play all out aggressively and not lay back hoping the other team doesn't score another goal to add to the misery. C'mon - every body's got to go....Hurry Boys..and Girls. Play the game right up to the final buzzer. This is why you work so hard in practice to get your skating and other basic skills up as many notches as you can. If you get hit hard a few times you're going to have the tendency to think twice before going into the corners to battle for the puck or skate down along the boards, but you have to prepare for this. You have to be able to handle taking a check as soon as you touch the puck. I give credit where credit is due. The Ducks played well and earned the cup. I think that I would rather have seen a few games like we had during the last Olympics. Let's just cut to the chase, I want to see the Bruins win a cup before I skate my final set of meat grinders.