Tactics: The Royal Road

[herman]

https://twitter.com/Cane_Matt/status/837654874191888385
www.twitter.com/Cane_Matt/status/837654874191888385

The MIT Sloan Sports conference was this past weekend, and Matt Cane and Ryan Stimson of hockey-graphs put together the results of their Passing Project in the context of defensive play and created this poster.

Tyler Dellow was also in attendance and reported his observations on The Athletic today.
https://theathletic.com/42319/2017/03/06/hockey-is-progressing-tyler-dellows-takeaways-from-the-mit-sloan-sports-analytics-conference/

There are some really cool data/technology outfits gathering a really good deal of play-by-play information, but don't have the hockey insight to know what to do with it, and there are some very very good hockey brains in the public sphere that have to painstakingly put their data together manually from volunteers hours. There's a fit for the betterment of the sport here, but there's also competitive advantage for the teams that can do this on the down low.

 

[herman]

https://twitter.com/ml_han/status/874814615896682496
www.twitter.com/ml_han/status/874814615896682496

This 1-Minute Tactics video focuses on the 1-3-1 PP scheme's lynchpin, the Hole.

	Zaitsev​			Gardiner​
Marner​	Bozak​	Kadri​	Nylander​	Brown​	Matthews​
	JvR​			Komarov​

The cast rotated a bit (Kadri/Brown swap, mix of D) but the scheme was generally the same (with slightly different emphases between the lines based on strengths): strong side playmakers on the half walls, bumpers on the back and in front of the net, disruptors/generators/cleanup in the middle. The scheme is designed to keep the puck in the kill zone between the dots and the goal mouth, preying on side to side (Royal Road) movement and making a deliberate mess to pounce on. As mentioned throughout the season, they deliberately avoided traditional PP schemes of cross-ice one-timers due to a) not really having a huge slap-threat; b) keeping pressure in the zone, and not blasting out back wall rebounds or injuring forwards.

Something to look forward to in a year or two: Johnsson and/or Timashov on the LW halfwall allowing for Matthews to play the Hole, where he is most dangerous.

 

[herman]

https://the1stpass.wordpress.com/2017/05/28/erie-otters-transition-game-a-theory-on-creating-offence/

This article is from last month (hat tip to WIGWAL) and is a compelling look at the modern game style that the Leafs, Penguins, and other teams (TBL, NSH come to mind) are looking to play.

It boils down to

• North-South through the neutral zone
• East-West in the offensive zone

Pretty obvious stuff: you want to play fast through transition so you can set up before the other team's defense gets structured. In the OZ, you want to pin pressure in and take advantage of moving the goaltender side-to-side (Royal Road). Speed, Skill, and Smarts are what you need to play this way.