Tough choices come fast, often
New forwards learning that breakouts must develop in split seconds, or not
LOS ANGELES — It is, Jared McCann unflinchingly says, “the hardest play in hockey.”
McCann has been with the Penguins for more than a year, arriving a few weeks before the 2019 trade deadline. But he is, partially because he has split time at center and wing, still getting used to the bang-bang play along the boards that is a staple of a Mike Sullivan team that is again one of the NHL’s fastest.
Picture this hypothetical play. Jack Johnson hustles to a puck in the corner to the left of Matt Murray. An enemy forechecker is bee-lining to him. The D-to-D pass to his partner, kind of like a quarterback’s check-down, is unavailable. There is no easy outlet up the middle. So Johnson slaps it around the boards.
McCann, the left winger, races to intersect that rim-around before a pinching defenseman who is trying to keep the Penguins penned in their zone.
In a split second, before he takes a bite of Plexiglass, McCann can weaponize the
opponent’s aggression with an accurate chip pass into the middle, trapping multiple forecheckers and sending the Penguins on the counterattack.
“Defensemen are pinching so much now. You have to be ready,” assistant coach Mark Recchi said Thursday after practice. “That’s part of our game because we play with speed. It plays to our advantage. We want to play that way, get into open areas and create odd-man situations.”
Executing that breakout play under duress is harder than it sounds, especially for a winger still getting used to the pedal-to-themetal way the Penguins play. It takes timing, toughness and equal parts precision and improvisation. One misfire into the middle can spark the red light behind the Penguins net.
That’s noteworthy for three new Penguins forwards who will predominantly play on a wing in Jason Zucker, Patrick Marleau and Conor Sheary. Another, Evan Rodrigues, should get shifts there, too.
“I don’t think I’m used to it yet,” McCann said after 91 games in Pittsburgh.
Johnson, a veteran defenseman, made it clear that it is not his first option.
Ideally, the Penguins gain possession in their end with enough time to set up a clean breakout. Or if there is a guy coming, he can quickly identify another option. But, when opponents send a five-man forecheck like the New York Islanders did in the playoffs last year, Johnson might have no choice but to rim it.
“You put it around there with a good amount of zip so he has a chance to make a play. You don’t want to make it too slow because it gives their defenseman time to get down on them,” he said. “Sometimes, it’s hard. That puck’s right along the dasher and you have to pick it off and make a hard pass under pressure.”
The winger on that side scurries to the boards to make a play on the puck before the opposing defenseman gets to the puck first or clobbers the winger.
“I tell our guys to try to push off, get a little bit of space and then see if you can get an extra split second to get the puck and get it to the center,” Recchi said.
Sometimes, the best that winger can do is bank it past the defenseman out to center and force the other team to go touch up and try again.
But, when the winger gets that extra split second to read the play, the Penguins pounce. They send the other two forwards and perhaps a defenseman, often the one who did not send the puck around the boards, on the counterattack.
“If it’s at the top of the circles or below, you don’t want to chip it unless you’re 100% sure,” Recchi said.
Or the Penguins winger might slap it softly up the boards, similar to what Bryan Rust did Wednesday night before scoring in the 21 loss against the host Los
Angeles Kings.
These bang-bang breakouts when things break down are not unique in the NHL. But the Penguins are one team that encourages their players to use their instincts and wheels and take calculated risks in the hopes of flipping the script. As McCann noted, it might take a winger a while to get that timing down. Look no further than Zucker, who in his first few games with the Penguins tried on a few occasions to chip the puck to Sidney Crosby in the middle but coughed it up.
“That’s just a hockey read he has to make and has to get adjusted to,” Recchi said. “I tell him to make that read a little quicker. ‘Be ready to jump. Be on your toes.’ They played more of a sit-back system in Minnesota. It was completely different. We play a lot faster. He’s catching up. He’s starting to figure that out.”