Long game pays off for Leafs
Stretch pass brings risks but it can also provide an edge on offence
It was Game 7 against the Boston Bruins last April, possibly the worst night of Jake Gardiner’s career.
With the Leafs down 5-4, Gardiner made a stretch pass from his own zone to the Boston blue line.
The intended receiver was Patrick Marleau, but Boston defenceman Zdeno Chara sent the puck back toward the Leaf net and David Pastrnak scored. It was 6-4 Bruins, who would add an empty-netter en route to a7-4 win. Minus-5 for Gardiner. The Leafs’ season was over.
In an emotional post-game interview, Gardiner took the blame for the loss. At that moment, Carl Gunnarsson was texting his good buddy and former teammate.
“I wouldn’t put all the blame on Jake. I feel bad for him,” said Gunnarsson. “You need a little tip from the forward. Didn’t get it. It came back. You can’t blame him 100 per cent.”
Fans of the Maple Leafs, and maybe even Gardiner himself, might never be able to forget the moment. But they should. Because the stretch pass — from the defensive zone to a waiting winger across centre ice — is becoming more prevalent across the league as a means to create offence.
“It’s a big part of the speed game that’s being played today,” says Penguins coach Mike Sullivan. “The ability to stretch the ice, and pull defencemen back and create gap challenges. There’s a lot of strategy by utilizing the stretch guy, and taking advantage of the speed underneath.”
The statistics show the stretch pass is effective. When it works, it can be spectacular. When it doesn’t work, it hardly ever hurts the team making the pass.
“Defences are trying to move the puck up in a hurry,” says Kings coach John Stevens. “Players recognize when their team has possession, you start heading to open ice. We’re talking about how much the game is faster. It’s not just guys are skating faster. It’s the puck speed that’s making the game faster.”
If it is possible to be the best at something and the worst at the same thing — at the same time — then the Maple Leafs own those titles regarding the stretch pass. According to thepointhockey.com, the Maple Leafs led the league last season in stretch-pass attempts (1,564) and were worst in the league in stretch-pass completion percentage (59.4 per cent). The thing is, the Leafs’ 929 completed passes led to far more scoring chances for than the missed passes led to scoring chances against.
“Complete 10 stretch passes that lead to goals, screw one up that ends up in your net and guess what people remember?” said statistician Mike Kelly, who authored the stretch pass report for Point Hockey.
Kelly says the stretch pass is to hockey what home runs are to baseball: Pass completion rates and batting averages don’t matter as long as the play works often enough to create offence. Excluding goals following faceoffs, Kelly’s research shows almost 75 per cent of goals come within 10 seconds of entering the zone, with another 10 per cent coming in the next five seconds. Thus the effectiveness of a stretch pass.
“A completed stretch pass can lead to a controlled zone entry, odd-man rush or breakaway — all increasing a team’s chances of producing a scoring chance and ultimately a goal. ... As for incompletions, more often than not an incomplete stretch pass will lead to a neutral zone puck battle that can be won by either team. Rarely are these passes picked off clean and taken back the other way for a quality chance.” The stretch pass is here to stay. “If it works, most time it’s going to be an offensive chance,” says Gardiner. “If it doesn’t, you usually the get the puck in and go on offence.”