GOALS, GOALS, GOALS ...
Players give their take as to why the NHL is experiencing an offensive jolt
When The Great One speaks, the hockey world stops in its tracks and listens.
Back in April 2016, as the lowest-scoring campaign in the NHL’s post-lockout era slogged toward its last shift, Wayne Gretzky bemoaned the state of the sport.
“When I was 10 years old, they’d throw a puck on the ice and say, ‘Go score.’ Now, at 10 years old, the kids are taught to play in their lanes. Defencemen stay back. Everybody blocks
shots,” Gretzky told the New York Times.
“I mean, my goodness, I don’t think I ever blocked a shot, and I killed penalties every single game. I thought goaltenders were paid to block shots, not forwards. It’s changed completely. I think the biggest thing we’ve lost is a little bit of our creativity and imagination, in general.” Two years later, Gretzky must be beaming with pride. While the NHL has not mor- phed into something unrecognizable, creativity and imagination are no longer in short supply. Nor is there a goal-scoring crisis — in fact, with only four days remaining in the schedule, 2017-18 is the greatest offensive regular season of the past 12 years.
No season since 2005-06 has featured more goals per game, according to Hockey-Reference.com data. Compared to 2015-16, when Gretzky made his remarks, there is roughly one extra goal every two NHL games, or 5.94/game now versus 5.42/game then.
So, what exactly is happening? Which factors are contributing to this uptick in goals?
To get an ice-level perspective, Postmedia asked six players from four NHL teams for their theories.
Here’s what they said:
THE CHANGING APPROACH — ATTACKERS
Frederik Andersen, like every other NHLer interviewed for this story, stated the obvious off the top: The game is faster than ever in 2018, it’s flush with skilled skaters and, with the enforcer role nearing extinction, talent standards have risen to unexplored heights.
The Maple Leafs goalie then brought up the “catand-mouse game” between goalies and skaters, “where you try to find something that works and then all of a sudden” the other side must adapt. This year, the shooters possess the upper hand.
“You see a lot of goalies become blockers, like Swedish-type goalies who are always in position,”
Andersen said, going back in time. “(J.S.) Giguere in Anaheim was a good example. He was phenomenal at that. They played the percentages (by blocking so much of the net). Now, you see guys being able to pick that corner. If they’re in a certain position, maybe they give up a hole and guys say, ‘Thank you, I’ll take it.’”
An avalanche of elite offensive players have joined the league since 2015 — Connor McDavid, Patrik Laine, Auston Matthews, Mat Barzal and Brock Boeser, to name a handful — and not only adjusted quickly to life in the NHL but conquered for long stretches. They are poster boys for a wave of pros who have grown up on specialized skills training, perfecting their craft under the watchful eye of personal coaches, and learned to treat their bodies like temples.
And each of them can fire a puck.
“Before, all anybody talked about was (Alex) Ovechkin and his shot. Now it seems like there’s a group of guys that are probably around his calibre of shot,” Jets centre Bryan Little noted. “(Steven) Stamkos came and everybody was talking about his release from that spot (near the left circle). A guy like Laine — I’ve never played with a guy who could shoot the puck like he can. There’s definitely more guys who can rip the puck than there used to be.”
These youngsters are beating goalies with quickness and deception, hiding pucks in their skates or stick until the very last moment. Andersen said the upper echelon snipers time their release perfectly and
“shoot it with a purpose.” And, when a defender is used as both a screen and a jumping-off place, it’s almost impossible for a netminder to follow the puck.
“It can be harder to pick up as a goalie because you don’t have a clear angle to track the puck. It is something maybe to the naked eye that doesn’t look hard but it is a difficult stop to make sometimes,” Andersen explained, referring to a move he on a regular basis thanks to teammate Matthews and rival Nikita Kucherov, two of the game’s purest goal scorers.
Buffalo Sabres winger
Jason Pominville, a 35-yearold approaching 1,000 NHL games, has witnessed another trend that may be affecting goal scoring: Kids these days are packing a deadlier weapon.
“A while ago, everybody used a heel curve,” Pominville said, eyes wide. “Now, some guys are using toe curves, higher lies.” Lie is the angle between the shaft of the stick and the ice line, with a higher lie bringing the stick blade closer to your feet. “You’re more above the puck. You can generate a little more power that way and be able to change the angle with the toe and the way you shoot it that way.”
The prototypical NHL stick, Pominville added, is whippier nowadays — “What’s Matthews’ flex?” he asked — which helps the shooter clip precious milliseconds from their windup. Puck meets stick and, boom, the goal light turns red.
The eye test and data align, too. Slap shots are becoming rarer and rarer over the past decade, per a Nov. 2017 Wall Street Journal study, while other types of shots, namely wrist shots, have gained prominence. So much so that the 2017-18 season will likely finish with the highest shots per game rate (a combined 63.6) since the NHL started keeping track of shots on goal in the early 1980s.
Maybe the goal surge can be partly attributed to the modest duty of getting more pucks on net?
“Really, how all your goals are being scored are in front of the net and off rebounds, screens, deflections, things like that,” Maple Leafs centre Nazem Kadri said. “Nobody’s walking anybody 1-on-1 and scoring a highlight-reel goal. That’s not realistic anymore, but you can certainly improve your shot, change the angles, release the puck quick to surprise goaltenders.”
THE CHANGING APPROACH — DEFENDERS
Little, 30, has been around for all but two seasons of the post-lockout era, suiting up for the Thrashers and Jets and averaging at least two minutes a night on the power play year after year. Recently, he detected a change on the other side of the puck.
“It does seem like, when we’re playing against teams’ penalty kill, more of their top-line guys are out there. They’re taking more chances and more risks to get shorthanded chances,” he said.
“It seems like that was kind of rare in the past. Penalty killing was the time for the skilled guys to get their rest, not go out there and block shots. Now it seems like every team puts one of their top guys out there to kill.”
This deployment adjustment and its natural effect on style of play — skilled, offensively minded players are probably risk-taking killers — appears to be bearing fruit. Through Wednesday, 207 shorthanded goals had been recorded in 1,239 games; in nine fewer games in 2016-17 and 2015-16, there were 184 and 190, respectively.
On the flip side, power plays have taken a giant leap forward. For the first time since 1989-90, the league-wide PP% is higher than 20%. Amazingly, 18 teams are capitalizing on every fifth power play opportunity. Leading the way are the Penguins, Maple Leafs, Lightning and Jets, who heading into Thursday night’s action all owned conversion rates of 23.7% or higher.
“It’s crazy to see,” observed Winnipeg Jets sophomore Josh Morrissey. For context, 201617 had 11 20% teams, ’08-09 had nine and ’15-16 had eight, whereas the other eight full seasons of the post-lockout era had seven or fewer 20% clubs. “Every team you look at, every power play, every first unit, has some elite skill on it. A lot of teams have two units with elite skill, like us.”
At even-strength, it feels like Morrissey and his defensive brethren are activating more often than in years past. The dominant strategy is to move the puck forward with possession, not laterally via D-to-D passes or off the glass for a puck battle.
Anecdotally, there seems to be a stronger appetite for stretch passes and breakout tactics that promote odd-man rushes. Hustling through the neutral zone to transform a 3-on-2 into a 4-on-2, for instance, has become second nature, says Danny DeKeyser.
“When you’ve got guys on the back end transporting the puck and consistently getting up in the rush, when there’s transition plays and the ‘D’ are jumping by the other team’s forwards, it creates a lot of chances,” said DeKeyser, the Red Wings veteran. “That’s one thing I’ve really noticed.”
“A stay-at-home defenceman?” he continued. “There’s maybe only a few left. You’ve got to be mobile, got to be able to skate, get up in the play and play defensively sound as well.”
Defending at the NHL level took a jab to the stomach this fall when the NHL rolled out new protocol regarding stick work, instructing referees to call minor penalties on virtually any kind of slash. Penalties are up slightly, by about one power play opportunity per game (both teams), but the real impact might be during even-strength play.
“I think it has changed, definitely, for some guys. Just your mindset, how you defend,” DeKeyser said. “Keep your stick down, make sure you’re not just giving guys meaningless whacks. A lot of those slashes were just whacks on the shin guards, kind of meaningless. It was just a habit. Now, it’s a penalty so you just can’t do it.”
Hockey is a game of inches and luck. The consequence of giving the attacker breathing room to operate, then, is significant. Not as significant as the measures taken to eliminate clutch-and-grab antics following the lockout, but notable indeed.
Goalie equipment remains bulky, the net hasn’t changed for decades, and the ice surface is still 200x85, so the answer is in the skaters and their behaviour between the boards.
“It’s just like anything,” Morrissey said. “As time goes on, every year that passes, you have to find new ways to adapt to play defence, just like how scorers are finding new ways to get that shot off or goalies finding new ways to stop it.”
Before, all anybody talked about was (Alex) Ovechkin and his shot. Now it seems like there’s a group of guys that are probably around his calibre ... A guy like (Patrik) Laine — I’ve never played with a guy who could shoot the puck like he can. There’s definitely more guys who can rip the puck. Jets centre Bryan Little