Could it be it's the natural forward thing to do when breaking a stick is go get a new one? Happens all the time. Forward mentality go get a new stick, there should be 2 defenders behind me. Oops, I am one of those defenders. I can see this as a real possibility.
It probably is one of the cons too playing a forward as defender.
I'm still try to figure out why 8 and 27 were split. They are the only players on the team to play with chemistry it seems. I've given up trying to figure out the coaching decisions.