Welcome to the initial Goal Breakdown for the 2014-15 Blue Jackets season. If you are here, you’ve probably seen one of these posts in the past. If you haven’t seen one before, then welcome, and enjoy. I’m going to be doing these a little different this year than in the past, with a new Goal Breakdown being posted every Wednesday (give or take). They won’t be game specific, but will usually feature one goal scored by the CBJ, and one scored against them. I will tend to focus on what the Blue Jackets are doing (or not doing) that led to the goal being scored, usually beyond the obvious “the goalie didn’t stop it”. I will mostly use goals from the previous week, but will look at older goals if anyone has a question about how any goal happened. If you have a request, you hit me up on Twitter @TheCoachUB. I don’t tweet much, but if you mention me I will probably see it eventually. Today’s post will feature Cam Atkinson‘s powerplay goal versus Buffalo, and Rick Nash’s goal late in the game versus the Rangers.
Cam Atkinson (on Jhonas Enroth), assisted by Ryan Johanson and Nick Foligno
First things first, there are a couple of nifty plays in the lead up to the goal. I really like this pass by Ryan Johansen. Just a heads up play (while he’s facing the opposite direction no less). The two Sabres players are expecting Johansen to either dump the puck into the corner, or chip it back to the point. Those are generally safe assumptions, but that lack of discipline opens up a giant hole in the box that Atkinson slides into.
Tyler Ennis slides over to fill the space, but a lefthanded shot in Atkinson’s space could have gotten off a one-timer. Cam smartly regroups, then does another thing I really like on the powerplay. Buffalo isn’t the most disciplined team, and Atkinson really tests them on that here by attacking the center of the box. By skating right into the space, Cam is forcing the Sabres hands. They need to communicate effectively and quickly to determine how to handle Atkinson. If no one takes him, Cam gets a shot off. If Meszaros jumps out on him, he might be able to get it low to Nick Foligno. If Stafford crashes down hard, Cam could drop it through him to David Savard. If Ennis comes down through, then a lane opens up to Jack Johnson. It’s going to be a tough pass that requires a quick decision, but the wrong one, or multiple guys going at Cam can create a nice scoring chance.
Meszaros comes out hard on him, and Ennis stays put in the middle of the box, which opens up a very nice passing lane to Johnson for a one-timer. Unfortunately he misses the net (although it appears that Foligno tipped it). This can be a killer on the powerplay, as the attacking players are generally overloaded on one side, so a missed net can wrap the puck around and out of the zone. In this case, Johnson was on the weakside, so Johansen and Savard will still able to be in position to keep the puck in the zone.
The missed shot has a positive side effect, in that it forces the Sabres players to move quickly from side to side. Meszaros gets on Johansen and Stafford is in position to cut off a pass up the boards to Savard. However, Benoit and Ennis are slow to move across, creating an ocean of space in the middle of the ice. Johansen gets to the puck first and cycles it back around to Atkinson. From here, it’s just speed. Not just skating speed, but speed in play recognition. Atkinson has always had number one, but he has been making much quicker reads so far this season than he has in the past. Cam immediately realizes the space he has, and attacks it.
The powerplay is all about narrowing down the play to a two on one. In the screenshot above, you can see this play is at a two on one right from there. Benoit has Foligno, Ennis has Johnson, and Stafford has Savard. That leaves Meszaros on Atkinson and Johansen, and he is beat as soon as that puck gets past him.
From here, it’s panic time for the Sabres. Well mostly panic time for Andre Benoit. Ennis does a nice job of getting down on Foligno, and some good communication between him and Benoit could have produced a different result. Benoit does not expect Ennis to help out down low, as he tries to take away the pass to Foligno, while also closing on Cam, to take away Cam’s shot. This is a clear miscommunication. Cam managed to beat Benoit’s slide, but even if he didn’t, he could have hit Johnson for another one-timer.
Cam has some nice patience with the puck though, waits out/beats Benoit’s slide and gets about the best possible shot a player can expect to ever get out of in-zone play. He doesn’t beat Enroth cleanly, but they all look like snipes on the game sheet. I think Jack Johnson is still out there, waiting for a one-timer that will never come.
Rick Nash (on Sergei Bobrovsky), assisted by Anthony Duclair
I swear I didn’t pick a Rick Nash goal to troll CBJ fans. Unfortunately, this goal just happened to have the most things I wanted to highlight (err maybe lowlight) of the three games played so far. I’m going to jump ahead a little bit in the video to show something good. The below screenshot shows some really nice positional play by the Blue Jackets players, and some pretty crappy positional play from the Rangers. The Jackets have two guys on the puck hard (Artem Anisimov and Scott Hartnell), with Jack Johnson and Alexander Wennberg in good spots to support them should the puck jump free. The Rangers have Martin St. Louis trapped behind the net, Rick Nash floating towards somewhere, and both defensemen (John Moore and Kevin Klein) sitting flat footed. The Ranger with the puck is 19 year old rookie third round draft pick, and major surprise to make the team, Anthony Duclair. That Jackets should be sitting pretty to come out of this with an odd man rush. Theoretically, Anisimov pushes Duclair up to Hartnell, who knocks the puck free, Wennberg jets out of the zone, and the Ranger defensemen have to turn around and skate forward just to not give up a breakaway.
Oh look! Everything I just said could happen pretty much did (almost). Hartnell takes the puck from Duclair, and Johnson, Wennberg and Anisimov all take off. Moore is still flat-footed, while all three Jackets are already moving. This could easily be a three on one.
Unfortunately, Hartnell makes a lazy play at the exact same moment Duclair makes a great hustle play. Hartnell tries to one-hand the pass to Johnson, while Duclair manages to recover and get his stick on it and knock it away. Now we have all three Ranger forwards in behind four of the five Jackets (only David Savard is left back). Hartnell had much better options on this play, but I am guessing he just didn’t figure Duclair would be trying that hard down three goals, late in the third period. A better move would have been a touch of patience to allow Duclair to over-recover, then hit Johnson, or just a chip up the boards to allow Anisimov to skate into the puck.
I mentioned panic time in the first clip, well now it is the Jackets turn. Even with the bad turnover, this still should not have ended up as a goal. David Savard makes an absolutely fantastic play on the short ice three on one. He takes away the shot, and the pass to Nash all at once.
The problems come from the non-Savard players, who do zero communicating. You’ll notice in the above shot that we now have three Rangers (Nash, Duclair, and St. Louis), and three Jackets (Savard, Hartnell, and Johnson) within a pretty small area of the ice. Logic would dictate that each Jacket should take a Ranger, and the threat would be neutralized. Well logic would be right, but there isn’t always time for that. You have to quickly read who is going where, and maybe shout out who you plan on taking.
The Jackets do none of the above. They all want to get the puck. After Savard’s block, the puck bounces back to Duclair again (who really works to make up for his original turnover). Hartnell goes racing right past Nash, and crashes into the net, almost knocking it off it’s moorings, and ensuring that Sergei Bobrovsky has absolutely no chance to make a save. Meanwhile, Duclair hits a wide open Rick Nash for one of the easiest goals of his career.
So there you have it. The lessons from today are as follows: attack space on the powerplay, force the penalty killers to make decisions and move around, and make quick decisions with the puck when the opportunity presents itself. Don’t be lazy with the puck in the defensive zone, when you do turn the puck over, don’t panic, and make sure you take a man. That is it for this week, check back in Wednesday next week for the second installment of Goal Breakdown.
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