The Weak Side isn't so Weak
How the Bruins utilize their weak side defensemen in offensive zone play
Recently, I was having a conversation with a scout who fed me an interesting tidbit: the Bruins are in the bottom five in the league in successful offensive zone passes. Typically, I am someone who has an answer, or at least a theory, when I am asked for insight on the Bruins (or my Toronto Maple Leafs). But this one stumbled me a bit. The Bruins are a great offensive team with forwards that can shoot and score and defensemen who aren’t trigger happy. Plus, they spend a good chunk of their time in the offensive zone. Wouldn’t this be a team that should be top five in that category instead?
After nibbling on the thought for a bit, I came up with a couple of potential factors. The first being plays to space. People talk about 50/50 loose pucks, but there is no such thing. An offensive player sending a puck to an area where his teammate will have an 80%+ chance of recovering it acts just like a pass. The second factor would be increased tolerance. The Bruins skaters are encouraged to skate with the puck for a longer period of time, letting passing lanes and shooting lanes develop during that possession. This was on display on Long Island Wednesday night.
Prior to the first goal on against the Islanders, when McAvoy receives the puck at the point, he recognizes the open space that will be forming with Foligno continuing high and changing. Coyle is able to recover the puck with support from Frederic on the strong side of the ice.
When Coyle brings the puck towards the point, McAvoy moves towards the center of the ice while Hall cuts through the center of the ice. Meanwhile, off of the puck, Grzelcyk is creeping down towards the faceoff dot. Therefore, when Coyle can’t complete the pass to Hall, Grzelcyk is in the best position to recover the puck.
In the 21 seconds between Foligno’s first puck touch in the offensive zone and the goal, there were only 2 completed passes. A proper structure and encouraging defensemen to reset the puck instead of shooting led to more zone time and a goal.
The second goal featured a similar phenomenon.
This time, Pastrnak is able to find Zacha coming off of the bench. Instead of Forbort staying glued to the point, he inches his way towards the faceoff dot, providing Zacha an option to pass to. And when Zacha elects to shoot the puck, Forbort is in position to follow his route all of the way through and finish in the blue paint.
While some may mistake evolution for riskiness, this is a planned, thoughtful structure that many teams around the league implement, and what the Bruins were so desperately looking for when they elected to hire Montgomery this summer.
Let’s think about the traditional overload cycle for a second. There become three clear problems that can be solved.
Red box - when a loose puck is sent to the far side of the ice, whether from a shot or errant pass, there becomes uncertainty in who should be going to play the puck. How far can the defenseman go down in the zone to retrieve the puck? This is where a defenseman can get burned for making a poor read.
Green box - there is usually a soft spot between the opposing wingers at the point and the opposing defensemen down low. Without active defensemen, it’s hard to take advantage of this.
Purple box - when the puck does get sent back to the point, space as well as shooting lanes are limited. This can lead to low quality shots that are often blocked.
By allowing the cycle to develop into a 1-3-1 formation (the same one you see on the powerplay), you solve those issues. You not only create more passing lanes, but your structure is in a better position to forecheck and recover loose pucks. There is a skater on each side of the ice with board dominance, and the skaters are well positioned to engage in board battles on true 50/50 pucks to the corner.
These two goals weren’t one-off events with a forward coming off of the bench either. You can see it late in the game up 3-1 with the third line cycling.
Brandon Carlo is on the far side of the ice putting pressure on the opposing winger and trying to be a passing option. He follows the play all of the way down, recovering the puck behind the net.
He even finds himself at the front of the net on his way back to the point.
Claiming that the Bruins have a more aggressive offensive zone structure this year is a true statement. However, I would disagree with the sentiment that more aggressiveness inherently means more risk. Players will constantly be forced to make decisions. Playing in a more conservative structure simply transfers the risk farther up the ice (closer to your own goaltender!). You can get away with this with a good team who finished 10th in the league last year with 107 points. But if you want to go from good to great, you need to take the battle to your opponents and execute. That’s what Jim Montgomery’s Bruins are doing.
If you liked this article, consider subscribing so that you get these delivered to your inbox every Monday.
This week, I will be traveling to catch a Bruins road game. Therefore, I might be sticking with another tactics theme next week.