Welcome to the second Goal Breakdown of the season. I mentioned it at the top of the last post, but I will do it again here. This year I will be putting out a Goal Breakdown every Wednesday night, generally featuring one goal for the Jackets and one goal against, that will go through the nitty gritty of what made that goal happen for the Jackets (good or bad). Last week’s Goal Breakdown post featured Cam Atkinson‘s goal against the Sabres, and Rick Nash’s goal during the Rangers game. This week will see a slight tweak, with all three goals against the Senators being quickly discussed, and a deeper look at Ryan Johansen‘s goal versus the Flames.
Erik Karlsson (on Curtis McElhinney) assisted by Clarke MacArthur
Don’t do this.
I need to hit this one first, even though it was goal number two. Just don’t. I mean. Like. I don’t have the words for how terrible this decision was by Nick Foligno. There is just no upside to this move. The best case scenario is that he breaks up the pass across the slot, the puck somehow doesn’t end up on a Senators player’s stick, and he takes out McElhinney. That is not a very good best case scenario. The bigger problem I have with it, it that he might have been able to stop that play had he stayed on his feet. Think about it. A sliding player is slowing down. A skating player is speeding up. He slid so early that he was starting to get back to his feet when he got to the net. Guess what happens if he just keeps skating? He’s on his feet, has more control of his stick and his body, and he’s probably able to knock that pass away, and possibly not take out CMac. Just a stupid boneheaded play. I am generally against leaving your feet ever, especially to block a pass, doubly especially when you are definitely going to take out your goalie doing so, and triply especially when you are a better than low chance of knocking the puck into your own net.
David Legwand (on Curtis McElhinney) assisted by Mike Hoffman and Chris Neil
If you are going to go out of position to pick up the puck, make sure you pick up the puck.
This goal looks pretty bad at high speed, as it looks like Dalton Prout is just running around not knowing what he is doing, or somehow doesn’t know that Legwand is behind him. But he knows, he just saw an opportunity to pick up the puck. He just misses it completely. Here’s the thing on that play: if Prout stays in his lane, he can still play the puck and Legwand if need be. He won’t get to play the puck cleanly, might have to just dump it out of the zone or into the corner, but Legwand won’t get an unfettered shot on goal. This move means he might be able to instantly breakout and send the Jackets on an odd man rush the other way, but if he misses, Legwand probably scores. There are some guys I am cool with making that decision. I am good with Ryan Murray making that decision (I trust him so much), and I expect it from Jack Johnson and James Wisniewski (those high risk, high reward plays are part of their games). I do not expect it from Prout, nor is that the kind of thing I would ever want to see him doing.
Mike Hoffman (on Sergei Bobrovsky) assisted by Chris Neil
Seriously, pick up the damn puck
Yes, the liney gets in the way of Johnson, and this goal probably doesn’t happen if Johnson has a clear lane. However, David Savard really needs to pick up that puck. Or don’t try and pick it up. Either of those moves is fine. He commits to the puck, and he at least guarantees they don’t immediately score on this rush. If he doesn’t make a move for the puck, then he has a one-on-one with back pressure from Johnson on Hoffman (meaning he can’t slow up or try a fancy move). Instead Savard half-asses the attempt to break it up, not getting enough of the puck to knock it away, but killing his gap control and allowing Hoffman the space to keep the puck away from Savard, and use his body to shield it from Johnson. Wouldn’t have minded a pokecheck attempt from Bob there either.
Ryan Johansen (on Karri Ramo) assisted by Nick Foligno and Cam Atkinson
Okay, so I like Jody Shelley (he was the Jackets most improved player last season, going from unlistenable to quite enjoyable), but he really said nothing in the replay that showed how this goal happened. This is a bit of a broken play, but that is part of what allows Ryan Johansen to get free. This goal is really a master class in the art of finding space. You hear people talk about it with guys like Steven Stamkos (the current best) and Brett Hull (the all time greatest), but you never really hear much of an explanation of what it is or how to do it. Johansen uses two key elements of it on this goal. Watch the goal again, but never take your eye off of Johansen.
The first key here is the big loop. This is okay in this situation for a few of reasons. First, the Jackets have numbers back if the puck goes the other way. Second, it’s a power play, so any chip out will likely take a longer regroup anyway, so he’ll have time to get back. Third, it allows him to sneak out of the way. This is one of the best tactics for finding space. Skate yourself out of the play, to the point where no defender is watching where you are. Once they lose you, then you are free to sneak back into the play. The is done by going way out on the weak side (whether on the power play or not), as well as a forward in the high slot sneaking out of the zone, then curling back in. I like the little trick play where you start to head for the bench like you are changing, then reverse course and zip unchecked back into the zone. Also note the keep-in by Savard here, a real nice play to keep this alive.
Foligno then tries to get the puck across to Johansen. This is another finding space move. Go so far out of the way that no one will cover you, but also so low that the goalie can’t track you with his peripheral vision. This move only works for guys with ridiculous accuracy, and the balls to be willing to try and roof it from a tight angle. Had this got across, Johansen was one-timing this with the intention of going shelf. Since Ramo doesn’t know where he is, and would need to get across quickly, you can all but guarantee he would have the bottom of the net covered. Johansen would either be scoring, or rimming the puck all the way around to Savard at the point (or back to the Jackets end, or maybe out of play).
Now we have Johansen using two tools of finding space at once. He uses the chaos created here to slip in unnoticed. The Jackets attempt to use a tricky little move that both worked and didn’t work. The goal of the short pass to Cam and the touch pass back to Foligno is to draw everyone into Cam, then have them scramble back out after he immediately passes it away. It gets the defenders moving and creates gaps in the box that can be exploited. My guess is this was a set play that would have seen Foligno pass it to Cam, who touch passes to Foligno, who quickly passes to Savard, who slap-passes a shot backdoor to Johansen (as diagrammed above). Instead, the pass gets semi-broken up, the Flames are all very aware of this and not paying as much attention to other things, like weakside forwards. This allows Johansen to quickly move into the space opened up. That is the next key to finding space, moving quickly once you identify where the space will be. See the below screenshot, as Johansen is moving to a spot currently occupied by a defender, but won’t be once he gets there.
Johansen sees the Jackets are going to win this board battle, and Foligno is headed down low with the puck. That means the defender in front will be moving lower to close out of Foligno, and since the other Flames are so far way, he’ll have a nice little space to take a shot from if Foligno can get him the pass.
Now we have the final tool necessary to successfully find space: a quick release. He had to get this one off quick, as he only had that small gap for a fraction of a second, before all four Flames would have closed on him. Fortunately, he’s got a pretty quick release (looking quicker this season too), and was able to bury it past Ramo.
So that is the art of finding space. Get yourself lost, take advantage of chaos, identify where space will be before it opens up, accelerate there quickly, and get the shot off instantly. Easy as pie. Now you all have a good excuse for the big loops you take during your rec hockey games. I know it’s one I’ve used from time to time.
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