How young stars are using Gretzky’s Office
It’s hard not to get sucked into Zegras Mania if you’re a hockey fan. Moves that are usually reserved for shootouts and prospect highlights are being pulled off in NHL games now. It’s been fun to watch this new generation of players bring new skills to the table. The lacrosse style moves has gotten some criticism for being gimmick or showboating, but this overlooks the level of skill it takes to pull off the move and how functional it is.
Goal-scoring is on an uptick, but it’s still very tough to create space for yourself in today’s game, especially on long cycles where defending teams can just clog the middle of the ice. One area that was underutilized for years was the space behind the net, “Gretzky’s Office” if you will. A crowd-sourced study by Ryan Stimson back in 2016 showed that shots that were preceded by a pass from behind the net had a shooting percentage of about 12.8%, compared to the league average which generally hovers around 7-8%. The study didn’t fall on deaf ears, as it was a major talking point for players, coaches and fans since. However, according to data tracked in the All Three Zones project, it’s still not an area that’s heavily exploited. Only 5-6% of total shots tracked in the project (which spans about six seasons) come from behind the net.
At this point, coaches probably know this, and the players do too, so why are behind the net plays such a small part of team’s overall offense? Poor coaching, execution or just lack of trying? Part of it likely stems from how much skill is involved with making plays from behind the net. Players are more comfortable in open ice and the area you’re working with shrinks when you go behind the net, even more when you have a defender chasing you. Think of how many times you’ve seen a forward circle the net and have it look like this:
Two defenders on him, trapped in a puck battle and nowhere to go except maybe relieve some pressure at the point. Therefore, a good majority of these sequences end in missed passes or harmless shots from 40-50 feet away. Some teams will have a defender chase you behind the net and if they’re not doing that, they’ll take away the slot, so you don’t have many passing options except for a low-percentage stuff attempt or jam play. It takes a lot of skill to make plays like this under pressure, which is why we’re seeing more players attempt “The Michigan” to exploit some of the holes here. We saw that with Zegras’ first attempt against the Buffalo Sabres where he lifted the puck over the net to setup Sonny Milano, bypassing the two Sabres players at the side of the net.
The lacrosse goal against Montreal might be a little less repeatable because of all the space he had but still, carrying the puck, lifting it on your backhand while skating at full speed is something that you generally can’t get away with at the NHL level it gives defenders something extra to think about when a player goes behind the net. Chase and potentially leave someone open in front or stay home and risk a wrap-around. With so few players completing the move, it’s still not a huge threat but we’re seeing a bit of a movement ever since Andrei Svechnikov shocked the world. Including players like Jonathan Huberdeau and Svechnikov himself faking the move to setup goals recently.
This also goes to show that the area behind the net is still an area teams can exploit even if they’re not necessarily making a play from there. Having good puck skills in tight spaces can go a long way if defenders are going to chase you behind the net and it’s why Svechnikov has thrived as a playmaker this year. Being the one who brought “The Michigan” to the NHL, defenders are more likely to zero-in on him when he drifts behind the net, and you’ve seen him adapt well to this by using his body strength and hands to his advantage when defenders try to check him.
This is a good example of a play that might not be scored as a pass from behind the net, but it works the same way. Svechnikov uses the back of the goal almost as a teammate to cross-up the defenseman chasing him. He’s then able to quickly pivot, locate the puck and turn to the slot to create a great scoring chance that was an inch away from becoming a goal. Also take note of where Jesper Fast is when he receives the pass. Instead of standing in front of the net, he’s in the slot where he can get more power on his shot and give Svechnikov a bigger passing target. Svechnikov was a top-five pick because of his strength and knack for goal-scoring in junior hockey. At the NHL level, you have to work to earn your space more, which is why the lacrosse move and plays like this have become part of his arsenal in becoming an elite offensive threat in only his fourth year.
Not every team has a player like Svechnikov, so systems can also play a role in creating these types of chances. Currently, there is no team in the league better at doing this than the Toronto Maple Leafs. At five-on-five, Toronto averages almost five passes from behind the net per 60 minutes, two more than the second-place team (Florida). It doesn’t seem like much on the whole, but incremental improvements can go a long way in a game like hockey. Say you’re in a game where the shots are tied at 30 apiece. Five of your team’s shots came off plays from behind the net while your opponent only had two of those plays. These types of plays yield higher percentage shots, so you have a better chance to win more times than not. The Leafs averaging /only/ five of these plays per game goes back to the point of how tough it is to create from there, but it’s a system that has worked for Toronto and part of the reason why they’re among the league leaders in most offensive categories.
What does Toronto do that is so effective? Most of it is the talent on their roster. Matthews, Tavares and Nylander all excel at creating in tight spaces and Marner can thread it to them from the perimeter better than most defensemen can. Those guys can excel in almost any system and the rest is about getting complementary pieces, which they’ve found in players like Michael Bunting and Ondrej Kase. This is also how a player like Alex Kerfoot went from potential expansion draft fodder to one of the most productive players in the league at five-on-five, most of his points coming from assists. Are they going to burn guys off the rush? No, but they can all help you get the puck back, make quick strike plays from Gretzky’s Office to create better chances for their stars and vice versa.
This is a much more fun way to forecheck, isn’t it?
The nice part about this kind of offense is that it doesn’t matter which line is out there because most of the roster can play like this. Luxury of having a 900+ point guy like Jason Spezza deep in your depth chart and guys like Bunting making league minimum. You even see the defensemen get involved like in the TJ Brodie goal against Ottawa, which is like the Svechnikov play we highlighted earlier. The pass doesn’t come from behind the net, but that’s where the initial puck movement was and where the final play happened with the wrap-around. Teams have played like this before, but since the All Three Zones project started, no team has created more of their shots from behind the goal line than the Leafs have this year.
Is Toronto’s blueprint repeatable? Not every team has a Matthews, but how they’re creating offense is a lot more than just having good players (although that’s a huge part of it). Cycling teams to death like the Avs do is one thing but reversing your attack points and playing from behind the net so much is something we haven’t seen a lot of teams fully commit to. Toronto’s done a nice job of getting everyone to buy-in and it’s earned them a top-five spot in the league going by most metrics. This is also something that could play a factor come playoff time, where they will need every advantage they can get in a tough first round matchup.
Tying it back to Zegras, it all comes back to taking advantage of the area where the defenders aren’t. For the longest time that area was the points, where offense usually goes to die unless you have forwards who are good at tipping pucks. Players like Zegras and Svechnikov are skilled enough to find other ways to get around coverage. The Leafs made a team-wide approach to this. How will the rest of the league adapt?
Passing data is from the All Three Zones Project