Play the pass

I couldn't help but notice this piece from Eric at Off Wing Opinion on Friday. It's about Game 1 in the Buffalo-Ottawa series, but he really takes NHL players in general to task for not covering a two-on-one properly. As the Ottawa players entered the zone, [Buffalo defenseman Ales] Kotalik cheated a little toward [Ottawa forward Mike] Fisher on the left wing, but soon dropped to his knees as and attempted a sweep check with his stick as [Ottawa forward Peter] Schaefer drove to the net. With Kotalik's stick along the ice, Schaefer had no choice but to try a backhand high over Buffalo goalie Ryan Miller's glove hand -- and he barely missed, ringing the puck off the inside of the post. It should never have happened. What happened to the defender taking the open man and leaving the shooter to the goalie? Why do we keep seeing NHL-caliber players making such a basic mistake? UPDATE: On OLN, color man Darren Eliot mentioned that the reason the shot got past Miller was because the rookie goalie had to cheat a little to the other post to guard against a pass back to Fisher. Of course, if Kotalik had simply covered Fisher like he should have, Miller wouldn't have had to cheat at all. As someone who dreamed of one day being a defenseman in the NHL, whenever I played I did my best to make sure I covered the pass and let the goalie take the shooter -- just like the commentators always said you should. To have someone else comment on the prevalence of this being mis-played is an amusing thing for me. To make it even better, Eric noticed it again during last night's Colorado-Anaheim game: That [defenseman] Sean O'Donnell of the Mighty Ducks was able to chip the puck up the right wing to [Anaheim forward] Joffrey Lupul, creating a two-on-one break for the Ducks. Breaking with Lupul was [Anaheim forward] Todd Marchant. Back in the Colorado defensive zone was defenseman Karlis Skrastins. Though he initially played toward the middle to cut off a pass from Lupul to Marchant, Skrastins couldn't help himself, and attempted a sweep check to knock Lupul off the puck as he drove onto the Colorado net. Guess what happened next? A wrister to the top shelf to beat [Colorado goaltender] Jose Theodore, and a 2-2 tie. This is becoming all too predictable. What happened to letting the goalie handle the shooter? For some reason, I don't think this will be the last time it happens, nor the last time Eric notices.