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.
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