Zaitsev interview

[The Black Panther]

Interesting.....

https://m.sports.ru/tribuna/blogs/su...e/2457861.html

Heres the translation(sorry for length):

Zaitsev plays without a puck. In the national team - he is the top defender
Babcock, see the world championship.

Nikita Zaitsev is one of the most controversial heroes of the season. Here is a chain of oddities:
• He is Toronto's best defender in the game in his own half of the court, and he is fired against the opponent’s best attackers.

• At the same time, Canadian media shoot at him point-blank. “He can't play! He had a negative indicator of utility last year, he went into a minus the year before last, he had a minus in the playoffs. Zaitsev is not a defender! ”- Don Cherry said before the playoffs.

• Another complaint about Zaitsev in North America - he doesn’t play well with the puck.

• But we remember that in Russia he attacked perfectly, and moved the puck, and threw - and even it was thought that CSKA did not fully reveal his creative skills.

Here is an unusual, but generally standard episode of his KHL game:

There is a complete feeling that Nikita is not disclosed in the "Toronto" as it should, and some part of the criticism is received undeservedly. Now he is in the Russian national team, which has restructured into a more open and modern model - and it is used not only as a killer of a minority and an effective homebody.

Several matches at the World Cup have already given a couple of interesting observations. Plus Zaitsev had a great talk with Alexey Shevchenko from Sport-Express - he answered in an interview to a part of the claims and explained what tasks Mike Babcock sets for him and what feedback he gets from headquarters.

Below is a compact story about how one of the best defenders of the generation progresses after a flight from North America to the Russian national team.

And yes, last year Nikita said that those who do not even watch them write about his matches - and in this case the claim does not work: I saw the entire 67 matches of Toronto this season, I finished the rest with highlights and described the whole thing in some detail in your channel .

So - go ahead.



Why Zaitsev get in North America?
Claims to Nikita are divided into two parts.

The first is quick questions based on pucks missed by Toronto when Zaitsev was on the ice. Or dissatisfaction with his “+/-” indicator - he, Nikita, balances around zero, so he looks like a convenient target. The same Cherry speech, which is mentioned at the beginning of the text, is the most succinct example of such a claim: I saw the missed puck, looked “plus or minus” and was ready: “Zaitsev is not a defender”.

“I’m amused that clowns like Cherry have a very big emphasis in our country as real experts,” Zaitsev himself explained. - It will immediately hang out on the sites, as if this is a serious person of some kind, in all seriousness. And the reader thinks - yes, Zaitsev, probably, some kind of garbage is engaged. You went out, you just do not have a living place, but people sit and think: "Damn, well, yes, that there, I came to zero in general."

The second part of the claims is buried in the details. Everyone in one way or another admits that Zaitsev is good in his own half, but partly neglects this fact in favor of his actions with the puck - and just here Nikita sags. The Athletic analysts sorted out every Toronto match and regularly put units, deuces and triples (with a maximum of five) to Zaitsev for a bad game with the puck.

Here is an example of this analysis. After the first match of the series with Boston, Nikita got three stars with this explanation (I don’t attach a link - the site is closed by paywall): But he also played a great number of times against Bergeron’s line, especially when he intercepted a pass in the fall when leaving 2-for-1. The Leafs were leading in the bill when he was on the ice, but I would say that this is more connected with the game of Mazzin and the three of Tavares. These are three stars, because he did not drag the team down, but I still would like to see how he makes the best decisions with the puck. "

It turns out that playing securely is not enough to be useful.



What is true and what is not?
Let's start with mistakes and missed goals.

“Everyone loves goals, loves beautiful celebrations, all this tinsel so that you develop a T-shirt beautifully,” Zaitsev explained to Alexei Shevchenko. - No one is watching how many pucks you have selected. It is impossible to see simply. A person can roll with a straight back, score a goal and ride with a steep face. And you can just play the whole game in your area - you are carried by the nose, you just crawl under the pucks. But in the end, you miss the winning goal - and just an outcast. ”

So that this block does not look like a solid excuse, it should be noted: the point is not that Zaitsev is not to blame at all. It's just that his services in defense are underestimated, looking at banal and fairly blind figures. And each episode requires parsing. For example, such as during the season Scott Stevens did - and yes, the truth is that Nikita (and then Igor Ozhiganov) was mistaken.

But from this analysis it is difficult to conclude that Zaitsev is not a defender.

For example, here are two episodes in which he earned a minus. Indeed, both situations are lost: the puck goes past Zaitsev, but there is no interception. But there, where the transmission goes, there must be at least one of his partners - and everything is not so simple.

The typical situation for this season is the match “Chicago” - “Toronto”: “Leafs” flew into overtime , Zaitsev has “-2”, but three hits and 6 blocked shots. And these 6 blocks are not included in any of the analyzes: there is a feeling that this part of the work of the defender is seriously underestimated.

“Look better after the season, who in Toronto is the thinnest and who made more hits, no matter how strange it may sound,” said Zaitsev. - And who caught the puck the most. Who played the most time in the minority. Do you think it is easy for a bad guy to hit someone, go under the puck, run in the minority, cut off the puck's puck? ”

Here is an excerpt from the interview: Zaitsev tells about the episode of the fourth match with “Boston”, in which Marshand scored from under him with a penny. Without explanation, it may seem that he just turned off the game.

Now for the game with the puck: Zaitsev in Toronto really has a lot of too simple decisions and little initiative. His basic action in his own zone is to give one's neighbor (for example, Mazzin or one of the attackers) or throw it neatly into another zone. But there is a difference between making mistakes and choosing simple solutions - the latter can easily be an installation from a trainer. And Nikita himself talks about this in the same interview:

“When I signed the contract (on May 2, 2017, Sports.ru ), they drove up to me on the very first day and said:“ We consider that you are the best in the minority and you will play an entire minority. We haven't talked about this for two years. Five-to-five I play in the defense zone. When I am stuffed into the attack zone, I immediately go for a shift. ”

It seems that the question “Why are Zaitsev so unhealthy playing with the puck in Toronto?” A very simple answer. In fact, it is not quite in the game defender.

“Everyone said that the defense of Toronto was shit,” he explains. - Everybody wanted Mazzin. But he began to smear the next day. You just need to understand that this is Toronto. You will be defrauded anyway, because you are a defender. ”

As Zaitsev played in the team (Russia)
Nikita was immediately given a little more freedom, but responsibility was no less. Zaitsev plays according to the situation: when the match is tense and there is a lot of dirty work in defense, he deals exclusively with her. An example is a match with the Czech Republic: 0 entrances to a foreign zone, but 11 exits from one's own, 11 rebounds and 13 masterings of the puck (all according to InStat). It was freer with the Swedes and this is the result: 5 entrances to a foreign zone, 2 of them - through the pass, 2 - through the conduct.

In the national team, he returned to the majority, played on the blue line in the attack, again distributes the transfer and is appreciated as a creative defender. Zaitsev has not turned into Brent Burns, but he has already given such a pass in a match against Switzerland.

His case proves that the Russian national team-2019 is a place where people think about players better than anywhere else, and they do everything possible so that these players reveal the best qualities, and not hide the worst qualities from everyone. Having received a full-fledged, not closed Zaitsev in his zone, our team has become even stronger.

[finnys_fanatsy]

my interpretation:

Hes pissed he gets called out in NA (the Toronto) for not being a solid enough Dman, but when he plays on the Russian squad is making plays and looks good doin it...and he dislikes Don Cherry.

[The Comish]

my interpretation:

Hes pissed he gets called out in NA (the Toronto) for not being a solid enough Dman, but when he plays on the Russian squad is making plays and looks good doin it...and he dislikes Don Cherry.

This is a better translation than the original post, but man, some of those translations are gold, especially my favourite, “Everyone loves goals, loves beautiful celebrations, all this tinsel so that you develop a T-shirt beautifully,”

I still think Zaitsev is a serviceable D and will be interested to see where he ends up next season.

[lucafen4]

At 4.5m He's way more trade-able than some think.
Especially if he ends up in a system that better suites him or he gets deployed better for his skill set.
If Babs played him similar to his rookie season, we likely don't have this conversation.

[Axeman33]

His rookie year, he was -22. I can only imagine that stat had something to do with the way Babs deployed him.

[2014olympicgold]

And even a Zaits+Johnsson/Kapanen trade would bring in a pretty good player I think.

[Auston'sWilly]

At 4.5m He's way more trade-able than some think.
Especially if he ends up in a system that better suites him or he gets deployed better for his skill set.
If Babs played him similar to his rookie season, we likely don't have this conversation.

This is bang-on right here. I would love to see Zaitsev gone from the Leafs, for many reasons. But part of his problem is also that Babs doesn't use him properly. Zaitsev is not a shut down guy. He could be a solid pickup for someone who needs a PP2 quarterback.

[lucafen4]

This is bang-on right here. I would love to see Zaitsev gone from the Leafs, for many reasons. But part of his problem is also that Babs doesn't use him properly. Zaitsev is not a shut down guy. He could be a solid pickup for someone who needs a PP2 quarterback.

I wonder if something Maata - Zaitsev 1-1 could work. I haven't looked at Pitts cap situation.. I'm sure they want to get rid of JJ period. It would give the Leafs about 420k in space and 2 less years.