On-Ice Aspects the Ducks Could Adopt from the Stanley Cup Finalists
The Oilers and Panthers are set to match up in the Stanley Cup Final. They each play in a distinctly unique way, but what aspects of their brands can the Ducks adopt for success in the future?
Puck drop for game one of the Stanley Cup Final is set for Friday at 5 pm PST. The Edmonton Oilers and Florida Panthers are set to face off in a best-of-seven battle chock-full of star power. It's set to be a Goliath vs Goliath series featuring two teams playing some of the most entertaining styles of hockey in the NHL. It will be truly a must-watch for any hockey fan.
The Oilers and Panthers each play a distinctly different style that their opponents have yet to decipher and counter fully. The NHL is famously a "copycat league" with coaches borrowing and adapting aspects that have made their opponents successful.
The Anaheim Ducks are one year into their era with Greg Cronin behind the bench. Cronin brought with him a system that he was successful with while with the Colorado Avalanche organization, coaching their AHL affiliate, the Colorado Eagles. The Avalanche and Eagles ran similar systems and it led to a Stanley Cup for the Avs in 2021-22.
As the 2023-24 season progressed, Cronin was increasingly willing to slightly tweak and alter the Ducks' system depending on their nightly opponent. By all accounts, Cronin is a video junkie; consuming endless game film on teams throughout the league and taking notes on what makes them successful.
That leads to the question: What aspects from the two most successful NHL teams in 2023-24 can Greg Cronin borrow and implement toward future success in Anaheim with the Ducks?
Edmonton Oilers
The Oilers' game is built unsurprisingly around generating rush opportunities with their two superstar forwards, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. McDavid is the deadliest player in history, especially so when he can attack a neutral zone forecheck by building speed through the defensive zone and into the neutral zone to gain the offensive blueline. Draisaitl uses his power, patience, and protection skills to ward off defenders and create time and space in which to make the most optimal decision.
Edmonton defensemen will rarely lead a rush and are quick to find their top option with the puck on their stick for breakouts or regroups. They simply find ways to fend off opposing forechecks and make the easiest and most optimal first pass.
The Oilers' power play may be the most lethal in history. It ran at a 26.3% clip in the regular season and they have elevated that number to 37.3% in the playoffs. Their top unit is designed around McDavid and Draisaitl and features Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Zach Hyman, and Evan Bouchard. They rely on constant and precise player movement within their structure. Draisaitl, McDavid, and Nugent-Hopkins are consistently in motion, shifting and switching between both flank positions and the middle bumper. They use Hyman as a release valve at the front of the net and on the goal line while Bouchard is used as a safety option if the opposing penalty kill structure collapses.
Florida Panthers
The Panthers play a brand of hockey that is high-pressure and relentless. Opposing puck-carriers are unable to breathe or calculate how to best build an attack, as what little time and space they have is taken away within a flash.
The Panthers manufacture their best opportunities while counter-attacking and forechecking. They are partial to stretch passes on regroups and breakouts to push opposing defenders back toward their own zone and eliminate their speed along with their ability to retrieve pucks deep. Through the neutral zone, they send the weak side forwards and defenseman with speed as either a passing option or to heavily pressure the retrieving defenseman, creating a disruptive forecheck.
Florida attacks breakouts in waves. They send their F1 and F2 toward the puck carrier and his first option. Their defensemen time their pinches perfectly to keep plays alive in the offensive zone and all forwards backcheck eagerly through the middle to eliminate cross-ice outlets.
Their defensive zone coverage can be seen as a man/zone hybrid. The player pressuring the puck stays on the puck carrier, constantly hounding and forcing the puck off their stick. The weak-side defenseman is always covering the front of the net and if an attacking player jumps to the slot, he is mirrored, and his availability as a passing option is eliminated.
The Ducks deployed a similar breakout/forechecking scheme to the Panthers early in the 2023-24 season but never found the results the Panthers manifest consistently.
Takeaways
When evaluating what has made the Oilers and Panthers so successful in their runs to the Stanley Cup Final, a couple aspects stand out among all others; they cater their brand of hockey to their best players and build systems true to themselves.
The Oilers have McDavid and Draisaitl, two of the best players in the world who thrive on the rush, so they manufacture ways to get them the puck with speed. Teammates then find dangerous ice to present themselves as passing options.
If the Ducks could translate aspects from the Oilers, it may benefit them to study the Oilers' power play. Allowing the Ducks' myriad of young, skilled players to display their creativity and find the most dangerous options off of each other at various areas of the ice may lead to the next evolution of power play success in the NHL. Units built around allowing Leo Carlsson, Trevor Zegras, Mason McTavish, Olen Zellweger, Pavel Mintyukov, etc. freedom and the ability to find weak points in opposing penalty kills could be an extraordinary sight to behold.
The Panthers build their play style around the best 200-foot center in the league, Aleksander Barkov, and his ability to disrupt opposing attacks and complement the "in-your-face" possession style of forwards like Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Reinhart, Carter Verhaeghe, and Sam Bennett.
The aspect from the Panthers that the Ducks could translate is their defensive zone coverage scheme. The Ducks don't have the depth of strength and power in their defense core to play a passive zone and box out in front of the net with efficiency. They also may not have the discipline and diligence for true man-to-man coverage, a system that seems to be phasing out from the NHL. A high-pressure, yet guarded system could benefit the talent of the Ducks from a defensive standpoint.
Greg Cronin has his work cut out for him if the Ducks are to take significant strides toward the playoffs in the next couple of seasons. He's shown he can be adaptable and has an intricate knowledge of how opposing teams around the league find success. It will be ever-intriguing to monitor what changes, if any, are made to the Ducks' style of hockey come autumn 2024 and if any of the facets from the Oilers or Panthers will be adopted.