Canadiens at Tampa Bay: puck mismanagement and rush options

The goal I really wanted to talk about had the Lightning failing to pick up a trailer but the camera angle available on the replay sucked, so I'll have to save that topic for another game.

In my scouting report of the Canadiens I said their chances will come off the PP (they scored a PP goal and had a few good shots off their chances), or off of puck mismanagement by the Lightning.  Well Desharnais' goal came off of puck mismanagement by the Lightning which resulted in a 3 on 3 rush.

What do people mean when they say puck management?  It's a blanket term for making the smart, safe play while having possession of the puck.  On top of making the smart play, it's being able to execute it.  So while it's a team thing, it requires a certain skill level of all individuals.  You can make the right or "smart" pass, but if it's a crappy pass, it doesn't matter.  You can dump the puck in when it's the right or "smart" thing to do, but if it's a crappy dump, then it doesn't matter.  In summary, puck management is a team's ability to make smart plays and execute them well to move the puck forward and avoid costly turnovers.

So let's take a look.

The play starts with the Canadiens actually failing to get the puck in deep (see my blog from the game against Colorado for a discussion on that).  So Gilroy picks it up and the Lightning have a chance to have a 3 on 2 the other way since all 3 Canadien forwards are up ice (numbered for you that need assistance counting ;)  )  Giroy has three options.  Two of them are in the frame and labeled with blue arrows.  The best option was probably Marty making a cut towards center.  The 2nd option is the forward who's leg is just at the edge of the frame.  The 3rd best option?  Is Stamkos who is on the near boards outside of the frame, which is where Gilroy decides to go.  The pass is off, the Candiens D picks it up and now all of a sudden instead of gaining a 3 on 2, we give up a possible 3 on 2 (which actually ends up being a 3 on 3)

3 on 3 or 3 on 2 drills are a fun one when you are young and play hockey.  And they are a good way to practice set plays because 3 on 2/3 on 3's happen way more often than 2 on 1's, and they require a little more creativity than just skating with the puck and trying to pass it cross ice to an open man like a 2 on 1 usually plays out.

So here's how it starts out.  Anytime you are on the rush, having the forwards swap places is a great way to break down defensive coverage.  The lightning actually do a really good job of swapping coverage, but the criss cross pattern the Canadiens run here accomplishes a few things regardless.  The puck carrier (blue arrow), will skate between the other two forwards and drop the puck to Desharnais who is taking the path of the green arrow.  Bergeron, who is currently on the puck carrer, will puck up Desharnais as he should, but because of the criss cross, it creates a little space for Desharnais as you can see in the picture below.

Look how far off Bergeron is to Desharnais (circled in blue) once he gets the puck.  This gives him time and space.  And a lot of hockey is about creating time and space on offense (or taking it away if you're on defense).  At this point, the defense coverage isn't as clear cut as the picture above.  Sometimes the defense will botch up swapping coverage, but like I said the bolts do a good job.

But even if the bolts swap coverage well, the play Canadiens run is effective because it created some a few  options.  The puck carrier can shoot and Cammalleri (green X) is driving the net, or he can pass to blue circle (which is probably the first option since east west passes on rushes really screw a goalie).  In fact, if you see Desharnais' head, he is looking at blue circle the whole way (again, kudos to I think Moore, in this case for taking making that pass option not the best one).  This probably throws Garon off a bit (and the goal is one that Garon would probably like to have back).  But either way, the play gives Desharnais time to look at the pass, realize it's not a great one, and get a shot through with all sorts of traffic in front of Garon.

Here it is all together.  Watch how Gilroy has a great chance to make something happen. Unfortunately, he makes not only a bad pass, but not the smarest one either.  Then watch the Canadiens rush pattern and how it creates space and options for Desharnais (and watch his head for a cool little detail of how he telepaths pass to Garon all the way before taking a quick shot that surprises the goalie).  

The Lightning get a ton of 3 on 3 and 3 on 2's.  It's something that as a fan I wish they worked on.  They usually do a drop pass to create time for whomever receives the drop pass, but they rarely skate any criss cross patterns, giving the defenders an easy job of maintaining coverage.

Canadiens scouting report

Next up for the Tampa Bay Lightning are the Montreal Canadiens.  While watching the past month of highlights for the Canadiens, it was eerily similar to watching the Lightning. This team is very weak around their own net.  They play the puck, not the man (similar to the bolts).  Their D also seem to get caught at the offensive blue line quite often too.  If you get this D to play along the boards and take away their time and space, they will cough off the puck.

Not much offense I've seen so far.  They like to break out quickly (also like the bolts) and try to apply pressure.  But like the Lightning, their forecheck is easily beaten. All of their offense or at least a good portion of it is generated on the power play or by defensive mistakes by the other team. They get a lot of chances off puck mismanagement from the opposition. Their only big offensive game was their last game against the Senators (also their first win under their new interim head coach). Poor Ottawa goaltending had something to do with it, but the Canadiens did generate a number of goals off 3 on 2 opprotunities.  The Lightning are pretty good about limiting odd man rushes, so I don't foresee this to be a big problem.

The key for the Lightning will be to get pucks deep (past the opposing teams goal line) and make their D turn their backs and finish their checks.  The Canadiens will cough up pucks if this is done well.  To keep the Montreal offense at bay, the bolts will have to stay disciplined as the majority of goals and scoring chances for the Canadiens are coming off the power play.  Other than that, just defend the neutral zone well because Montreal will look for those long stretch passes to get a break.  Lastly, puck management is key.  Montreal's offense is based off of mistakes made by the opposition.  If the Lightning manage the puck well and keep the pressure on the Canadiens D, I don't see Montreal generating too much offense based on their performance for the past month.

Flyers at Bolts

As expected the Flyers generated a ton of chances off the rush last night.  In the above photo, Stamkos does a good job of communicating who he's going to cover.  This allows the D man back to take the puck carrier and know that Stamkos will do his best to cover the pass.  Simmons is the last player.  His movement away from the puck is poor, because as this play develop he is too close to Stamkos, allowing Stamkos to effectively cover both players.  If Simmons eased on the brakes a bit, he'd bit wide open with Stamkos in too deep since he's covering the guy on the far post.  The pass is attempted and Stamkos blocks it.

For the most part the Bolts did a great job of rush coverage.  Making sure to keep an eye on players without the puck.  And that will be the theme tonight.  Not on defense though, but on offense.  If you notice a lot of Stamkos' goals this season (and his two goals last night), you would think "Gee, anyone could score those".  And that is true.  However, what Stamkos does so well (and what Hartnell did well on his goal) is put himself in a position to score a goal.  

I'm going to try explaining the goal first, and then letting you watch video, so that by the time you watch the video of the goal, you know what to look for and you can train yourself to catch these kind of points in "real time".  It takes practice, but it makes watching the game of hockey so much more enjoyable.

The goal starts off as a 3 on 4 rush (the Bolts having 4 defenders back!).  Giroux makes a great play to bank it off the boards to pass to himself.  Here is a frame as it happens.

I've circled in blue Downie and Hartnell.  As you can see the Bolts have plenty of D back.  Giroux makes a great individual effort to chip this puck in and beat Clark to the chase (at least I think it's Clark).  There should be two Lightning players that can take the trailer for the Flyers and Downie has Hartnell covered.  Everything is ok at this point.

And this is where Hartnell's movement away from the puck allows him to score the eventual goal.  Rather than making a B line to the corner or to the goal, he peels off to the center a little bit puting him in a position where it is vague who should defend him.  He's broken his coverage away from Downie.  Downie could follow him, but he'd be technically leaving his "zone" as a winger.  Plus there are two defenders for the Lightning in the slot.  What should happen is the other Defender takes the Flyer driving to the net, and Stamkos, who's playing center should pick up Hartnell who has drifted to his zone.

Unfortunately, Stamkos does not pick him up as he effectively duplicates the other defender's position (perhaps because he say it was Jagr and felt the need to double cover him?).  Stamkos should move along the yellow arrow to pick up Hartnell who is now drifting to the far post.  Below is a video of the result.  Rather than watching the puck, keep your eye on Hartnell who starts off on the near boards and watch his movement away from the puck.

Now let's take a look at Stamkos' second goal of the game.  It's a power play goal and if you just watch it, it looks like the Flyers left Stamkos wide open on the far post.  However, what leads up to that is a breakdown of coverage on the Flyers part, and a quick few steps of Stamkos away from the puck that leads to the goal.

Here's where the play starts.  Vinny has the puck (red circle) in the corner.  The Flyers D coverage at this point is fine.  I've circled in yellow the groups of coverage.  Every Flyers defender has a Bolts player covered. Stamkos is a little open, but the Flyer in the center is covering him via the passing lane (tho at this exact moment, Vinny could have made a sick between the legs backhand pass to a wide open Stamkos, but chances are slim).  Either way, the Flyers look ok at this point.  Except.....

Meszaros (I love to pick on him) inexplicably moves towards Vinny in the corner (red arrow).  What he possibly thinks Vinny can do with the puck and a guy on him from there is beyond me. He most likely is going for the double team to strip Vinny of the puck and clear.  Vinny is going to move the puck up to Marty who is on the half boards, that forces the defender covering Downie to move to Marty (yellow arrow).  This leaves the poor Flyer with the green X over his head to cover both Downie (whom Marty will dish the puck to) and Stamkos all by his lonesome, which looks like this........

Now look what would have happened if Meszaros understood that Vinny can't do crap in the corner with another defender all over him.  He'd be right about where the puck is or all over Marty.  One defender would still be on Downie and the poor Flyer in the middle could play the passing lane to Stamkos, which he's doing quite well in this frame. Notice if you drew a straight line from the puck to Stamkos, that defender is in the way.  That is exactly how you play the passing lane.  Stamkos knows this, so what does he do?

Once the puck goes to Downie, the defender who was playing the passing lane to Stamkos is forced to step up to the puck carrier.  It now turns into an isolated 2 on 1.  In a 2 on 1, the defender must always play the pass and let the goalie take the shooter.  And the defender *would* be playing the pass if Stamkos wasn't aware of the situation because Stamkos would normally be where the red X is.  But Stammer is smarter than that and takes 2 (literally 2) quick steps to get into open position to receive a great pass from Downie.  Here it is in video.  When watching this, keep your eye on Stamkos' movement away from the puck.  You can see the Flyers defender does a great job and staying in the passing lane until the very end when he's forced to step over to Downie.  Then you will see Stamkos take his two quick steps to get open.

So next time you're watching a game, try to train yourself to keep an eye on the players away from the puck.  The great scorers that seemingly get so many "tap in" goals, usually get them because they can read the play and and get themselves in position to get those goals.  The two goals shown here are great examples of it.  Watch a lot of Crosby goals and you will see he is amazing at it too.

Flyers scouting report

So I am going to give this a try.  Time permitting, before some games, I will look at about a month's worth of highlights for opposing teams to see if I can come up with some sort of "scouting report" for the opposition.  I don't know how accurate it will be, but if it turns out to be semi-accurate, i'll continue doing it.  If it's not accurate at all, I won't waste your time (and my time!) with it.  

Anyways, watching a good deal of Flyers' highlights, I have found a majority of their goals and scoring chances come off the rush.  They are *extremely* good on 4 on 3, 3 on 3, and 3 on 2 rushes.  They pass well and switch places (criss-cross) a lot to breakdown defensive coverage.  Often times there is a late trailer that they will find to get a great shot off and either score or create a rebound chance.  The Lightning will have to be very sharp in not being mesmerized by the passing and puck carrying and make sure that everyone takes a man and make the appropriate switch in coverage when necessary.

A second major source of offense from the Flyers is shots from the points.  Meszaros in particular gets some heavy shots off (especially from the power play). They are  good at going down low, pitching the puck back up the D and then the D  is very good at *quickly* getting a shot through traffic to the net.  Resulting in either a goal or a rebound chance. 

However, the Flyers defense seem to be prone to the same kind of attack.  They collapse down low in their own zone and will leave the points wide open.  If the Lightning can get down low make a crisp pass to the point to allow our D to get a quick shot off (often times, the Lightning's D hesitate giving the opposing D precious milliseconds to get into position to block the shot), they should be able to get pucks through and go for a rebound chance.

So in the game against the Flyers, watch to see how the Flyers generate offense off the rush (probably the reason why Boucher was so adamant about playing that conservative 1-3-1 on that infamous game in Tampa) or how they pitch the puck back up the points to get a quick shot off through traffic.

Also look for the Flyers D to collapse down  low in their zone to leave the Bolts' point men open when the Lightning are on the attack.

Bolts at Colorado

So bear with me.  I'm blogging from my iPad and i'm trying to figure out how to do this so things might look a little funny.  I'm also trying to figure out a way to make this blog...ya know...useful to read.  So instead of looking at every goal or chance, i'm going to highlight some basic hockey "strategies".  I use strategies in quotes because it's more like, things you learn in pee wee hockey that is easier said than done.

Anyways, for todays blog...i'm going to be highlighting a goal by the Lightning and a good scoring chance from the Avalanche that are created by the same mistake.  Failing to get the puck in deep.  Getting the puck in deep is the most basic maxim in hockey.  If you've been watcing 24/7, you hear the coaches (this season and last season) say things like "let's grind these female dogs out" or "let's keep moving north".  It means, you either carry the puck in and you are good enough to dangle around the D.  Or you chip it in and chase after it.  Or you throw in a hard dump and have a team mate chase after it.  What it DOESN'T mean is chipping it right to the opposing D so they can turn it around.  It doesn't mean making a drop pass at the blue line that fails, trying to dangle a D and failing, trying an east-west pass and failing etc etc. Teams fail to get the puck in deep.  Sometimes it's not a biggie.  But often times, it leads to a good scoring chance for the opposition.

Anyways, the first goal we'll look at is Kubina's goal that put the Lightning up 1-0.  The goal comes because the Avalance fail to get the puck in deep.  Here it is.

Now let's take a closer look.  Ultimately this is a bad goal by Giguere, but I'm gonna make the argument that there were two Colorado defensive lapses.  One that caused Kubina's shot (failing to get the puck in deep) and the other that would have allowed Purcell to have a wonderful chance at a rebound had Giguere made the save on Kubina's initial shot (failing to cover the late man coming in).

I've highlighted where the puck is with the red circle.  This happens all the time in hockey games and I get upset every time the Lightning do it (which is often).  It's a small mistake but it is relatively easy to avoid and if you make this mistake it often times leads to a scoring chance for the opposition.  The colorado player who last touched the puck has one goal in this situation.  Get the puck in deep in the Lightning's zone (make the puck go down the blue arrow!).  He fails.  To make matters worse, Colorado is on a line change.  This allows the Lightning to get a quick break the other way.

So we have Vinny with the puck (circled in red) with Kubby trailing the play.  The Avalanche just finished a line change so they are in scramble mode.  The defender in the center should move up to Kubby once Vinny makes the drop pass to him.  That defender actually does a decent job (albeit a little slow)

So as you can see Kubby has the puck, the defender has moved over to him to try to block or disrupt the shot, but now you have another defender that is comitting the sin of looking at the puck carrier and not paying attention to his surroundings.  That would be Purcell (yellow arrow) floating in towards the net to look for a rebound.

So of course we know the shot from Kubby goes in, but as you can see because the Avalanche player failed to pick up Purcell coming in late, he's wide open right in front of the net.

Next, let's take a look a this great chance by the Avalanche.  

It starts because Tyrell fails to get the puck in deep.  That starts it, but the second mistake is a breakdown in coverage that leads to a player being wide open for a rebound chance.

Tyrell is usually good about not making this mistake, but as you see, he *tries* to do a simple chip and charge, except the chip fails, the avalanche quickly move the puck the other way.  And, as it just so happens, the Bolts are trying to complete a line change here (which is a big reason the defensive coverage lapse happens).

So because of the line change, poor old Hedman is alone in taking on 3 players while the others rush back to get in the play.  Hedman being the lone guy, has to take the puck carrier.

The puck carrier that Hedman was covering drops the puck to the shooter here.  Now that some time has passed, a few other Lightning players have joined the play.  What ideally should happen here is Hedman moves off the puck carrier and follows that guy driving the net (red arrow) and the defenseman should move up to the puck carrier, which he does.  Hedman stays with the puck carrier and makes an attempt to block the shot.  Which would be great....except he doesn't block the shot, leaving a WIDE open rebound chance.  Great save by Garron.

So next time you watch a game, look at how often fails to get the puck deep vs the opposition.  It's one of the fundamental things that the Bolts aren't great at this season.

Bolts at Sharks 12-21

So the Bolts got pummeled 7-2 yesterday and as the season continues, there are all sorts of conjectures as to why the Bolts look so dull this year.  I won't attempt to answer those questions on a large scale (at least today), but I'll attempt to break down tape and explain the goals against.

By the way, I'm a total amateur who happened to play a decent amount of rec hockey and lots of soccer.  This is no way the "truth" about how to play hockey, but merely to be entertaining, particularly to those hockey fans that enjoy the sport and are interested in learning how to view the game more from a strategic standpoint.

One last thing, this is heavily influenced (ie, ripped off) by some writings of Justin Bourne (his blog) whom I believe to be the best writing on the subject of hockey i've come across (and I tweeted him my thoughts about his writing too).

With the introduction out of the way, let's get down to bussiness.

Here's the first goal against coming a whole 3 and a half minutes into the game.



Now let's break it down.....

The play starts with the Sharks throwing the puck behind the net, the Lightning, employing a pretty aggressive defensive zone system, send both D men to pursue, the battle is lost (small mistake 1).  To make matters worse, Hedman and Brewer kind of collide and its the beginning of messy D positioning at this point.  Now in the frame above, Hedman moves back to cover the post.  Unfortunately, it's the side that Brewer is already covering (meaning, in order for the puck to get to where Hedman is standing, the puck has to go through Brewer).  Ideally Hedman is where that big red X is.  Downie has the guy in the slot as should be the case.  Moore is floating a bit to cover a pass back up to the point.

This is where things start to go awry.  The puck was brought out and Brewer pursues.  The puck gets cycled back down to Thornton behind the net.  If Hedman was where the big X was in the first picture, he's already all over Thornton.  Instead he's at the post and he can either stay there, or let Joe set up camp behind the net.  he decides to pursue Thornton (not sure why).  Brewer's read is much tougher here.  He's caught right now.  He should be at the post Hedman was at to stop Thornton from some wrap around attempt, but if he does that he leaves the eventual goal scorer open.  Downie who had the guy in the slot in the first frame is now covering no one and looking at the puck. Though in his defense, he's at least in good position to intercept a pass to the slot.  Moore who was floating to cover the points now has left Dan Boyle wide open.  In actuality, this is a horrible picture.  Joe has the puck behind the net, there are 3 Sharks in pretty good shooting areas, and all 4 Lightning players in the picture are looking at the puck behind the net.

And here's where you have to give some credit to the opposition.  Brewer decides to take the post and leave the man.  So whereas the eventual goal scorer is open, Thornton is forced to make a sick back hand pass from behind the net.  But it's Joe Thornton, so he makes a sick back hand pass from behind the net.  The only thing that might have helped (though it probably wouldn't have) is if Hedman stayed in front of the net and he could have possibly got a stick on this shot (since he's like 8 ft tall) but for some inexplicable reason he chases Big Joe behind the net (presumably to not give him time to set up there).  Best case scenario is that Hedman is where the red x is in the first picture.  That way when the Brewer pursues the puck carrier and the puck is cycled back behind the net, Hedman is already there to give Thornton no time at all.


The second goal against comes while the Lightning are on the PK.  Take a look.



Now lets look at it slowly.

There's a shot that goes around the boards.  Adam Hall pursues the puck.  Pyatt for some reason over plays this even though he should let Hall take the puck on his own (remember, the Bolts are a man down?). In fact, if you watch the clip again, you see Pyatt race towards the puck, realizes that Hall is there and that he's out of position and does a hard stop to try to get back where he's supposed to be. Ideally Pyatt is way more center than he is on the near boards (red x marks the spot).  That allows him to cover the guy on the point in the frame and also the guy on the far point (eventual goal scorer).  It's a difference of maybe half a second and 5 ft of ice.  But that minuscule difference separates a pass to a wide open shooter and a pass to a well covered shooter.

The puck is where Hall is but will eventually drop down to Super Joe at the half boards.  When it gets there, Brewer inexplicably over plays to engage Thornton (shown with blue arror) perhaps the game plan was to take away his space?  not sure, but it's not working.  Ideally Brewer realizes that Joe having the puck there isn't the end of the world (it's where he can dish it that will kill you) and Brewer stays about where he's at.

Above is where things are already lost.  Thornton makes a sick pass to the guy at the far point. Remember that X i said Pyatt should be at?  Well, now it really hurts that he isn't there because he struggles to get to the shooter.  Hedman has the option of stepping up to the shooter if he feels like Pyatt is completely burned, or, you know, being a defenseman and covering the front of the net, especially important since we saw Brewer take himself out of the play already.  Circled in red is the eventual goal scorer whom no defender is even bothering to look at since everyone is so concerned about the shooter.  Hedman decides to step up and attempts to block the shot (which would have been great...except the shot goes through).  Brewer is doing his best to get back into play, but it's too late.

The shot goes through and the rebound sits nicely for Pavelski to finish it off.  It was probably best for the Hedman to try to block the shot while not moving so far out because then perhaps he's in a better position to get a stick on this rebound (since he's 8 ft tall).  As you can see in this frame, he realizes he's not quite where he's supposed to be.

Third goal is one Garron would like to have back.  Plain and simple.

Fourth goal, Stamkos gets smoked in the back check by Couture.  Doesn't help that the other 2 guys are taking their sweet little time back checking.

5th goal (last one i'm going to go over because, i'm learning this is actually a lot of work). Also while on the PK.



Over aggressive PK kills us again.

Moore loses the race at the point and the puck gets chipped to Couture.  Hedman unfortunately misses a few poke checks and follows Couture aggressively.  No problem except Hedman must prevent the pass, which he unfortunately doesn't.  I say unfortunately because sometimes, there's just nothing you can do.  Couture makes a great pass back to the far boards and leaves the defense in the following little predicament.

Hedman is now in no man's land and Brewer has the tough job and playing the shot *and* the man in front of the net.  He actually does it kind of admirably.

Just a few frames later it looks like this.

If Hedman and Brewer were smooth they could pull off a nice switch here where Hedman drifts towards the guy in front of the net and that allows Brewer to step out towards the puck carrier. Unfortunately Hedman is...umm....not sure what Hedman is doing.  Tyrell is currently looking behind him because he knows his job is to cover Couture who is hovering around in the slot.

Unfortunately, the shot goes through.  Brewer is trying to play both the shooter and man in front of net since Hedman was doing neither.  Hedman, since he's 8 ft tall, is in ok position to take the guy in front of the net, Tyrell, whereas before was keeping tabs on Couture has now left him open to try to clear the rebound away from the net.  Rebound goes straight to an open Couture and this was around the time I decided I was going to get some sleep instead of staying up for this late west coast game.

So, while, in general, yes...the Lightning played poorly to open the game.  It really comes down to making small defensive mistakes.  Add in the combo of some great plays by Couture and Thornton.  That's why i get so distraught over small things that happen that don't really effect the game.  Because, you do that enough times and it will cost you.