A closer examination of the Red Wings' shootout victory in Los Angeles, emphasizing the importance of width, pace, and dual threat puck positioning to shootout success
A closer examination of the Red Wings' shootout victory in Los Angeles, emphasizing the importance of width, pace, and dual threat puck positioning to shootout success
Since being introduced as the league emerged from the darkness of the '04-05 lockout, the NHL's shootout has evolved from entertaining novelty to boring gimmick in the imagination of most hockey fans. Why award all-important standings points based on a skills competition?
And yet, the NHL—not exactly a stranger to head-scratching decision-making—continues to do just that, so, while the league does still determine a winner by shootout after 65 minutes of tied hockey and while the Detroit Red Wings push desperately to collect as many standings points as they can in a bid to return to the postseason, let's take a moment to explore the finer points of a successful shootout.
On Thursday night in Los Angeles, the Red Wings—who were not the better team at five-on-five over the course of 65 minutes of, well, actual hockey—stole an extra point by taking a 2-0 win in the game-determining skills challenge. Prior to Thursday night's game in Los Angeles, Detroit had played in just one shootout this season: a December 22nd victory over the Philadelphia Flyers.
Curiously, that win over the Flyers had nearly an identical structure to Thursday's win over the Kings. Lucas Raymond and Patrick Kane both scored, while the Red Wings' goaltenders (on Thursday, Alex Lyon; back in December, James Reimer) stopped each attempt they faced.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=657iCjQcaKI[/embed]
After that December win, Kane—who shot third—explained the benefit of being the third shooter in line, because it allows you to get a taste of what works or doesn't for the preceding shooters.
"I think going third you have a little bit of an advantage," he said. "You get a read from the other two guys. And so Raymond had a nice move there, so I almost tried to replicate it a little bit as a lefty, but sometimes you come in on a different angle and you go a little bit slower you have some more options."
In that shootout, Alex DeBrincat fumbled his stick-handling attempt and didn't get a shot off, while Raymond beat Carter Hart by taking a wide route, then deliberately stick-handling across the face of the net before firing a shot past Hart's blocker. Kane (a lefty, unlike Raymond) then scored on a mirror image of Raymond's move to clinch the win.
"I think it just gets the goalie off his angles a little bit, especially when you come in a little bit slower," Kane added, when asked by The Hockey News about the benefits of starting a route wide then cutting in. "Just talking to goalies over the years, that seems to be when they have a tougher time. I think Raymond pretty much did the same move coming wide and coming in on an angle, so you have a couple of different options when you come in that way."
In that sentiment, Kane brings up three central variables that contribute to shootout success: pace, getting the goalie "off his angles," and the preservation of different options on the way in. In a recent piece for his Hockey IQ Newsletter, Greg Revak offered those same three pillars as central to shootout success.
As Revak explains, a shooter is best served by changing speeds to throw off a goaltender's sense of depth and rhythm. A shooter needs to get the goaltender moving left to right or vice versa, because that movement will inevitably open up a shooting target as the goalie pushes across the crease. Finally, dual threat puck positioning (i.e. putting the puck in a spot where the shooter can either pick a target or go for a deke) is essential to keeping the goaltender uncomfortable.
In Thursday night's shootout, Raymond and Kane scored again (both employing similar moves to the ones they used against Hart), while the Kings' Trevor Moore and Adrian Kempe came up empty. Both Detroit's success and LA's misses help demonstrate the value of changing pace in the approach, moving the goaltender with a wide route, and that dual threat puck position.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNEIKRc3WJg[/embed]
Moore (0:00 of the above video) goes first, and, as you can see, he does take a wide route, but he cuts back toward Lyon in net by the time he hits the blue line, ultimately minimizing the benefit of that wide route because he is more or less attacking in a straight line as he moves in on Lyon.
Moore is brisk in his approach, which can be successful, but because he never changes speeds one way or the other, that too does little to negatively affect Lyon. By the time he gets to about the circles, his puck positioning means he has little choice but to try a deke, and Lyon stays square to the shooter, turning aside the backhand-forehand chance with apparent ease.
Raymond (whose attempt begins at 0:26) starts wide like Moore did, but unlike Moore, he doesn't cut in on goal until he reaches the face-off dots (as opposed to the blue line). This puts Dave Rittich in an awkward position as he tried to stay squarely between Raymond and his net; you can see a twitchiness to his glove and legs as Raymond cuts in, which looks like a sign of relative discomfort.
Raymond, meanwhile, slows as he cuts in, then accelerates again as breaks into the slot. He has the puck in a position where he could shoot or deke, but he sees that Rittich has left ample space to the far (glove) side, allowing Raymond plenty of net to shoot at, which he finds.
Kempe's attempt (beginning at 0:55 of the clip above) is even less successful than Moore's. He comes in dead straight at a steady pace, then misses the net on another backhand-forehand try. Sure, perhaps he could've beaten Lyon with the move, but in fact, Lyon didn't have to do anything to get the stop, and Kempe left himself with an extremely fine margin by attacking the net so directly. He never had much to shoot at, so it can't be too much of a surprise to see him miss the target.
To seal the Red Wing win, Kane (starting at about 1:22 of the video) shows off the ridiculous hands that have made him one of the league's most dynamic scorers for over a decade.
But, if you pay close attention to his attempt here, you can see that it's more than just hands that put Kane in a position to win this game: His route is central to setting up the move that follows. Kane attacks wide and starts with pace but then taps his brakes as he bears down on Rittich.
Like Raymond, he pushes wide toward the face-off dot, then cuts in upon hitting that mark. Kane sets up his eventual shot with stick-handling, but it's his combination of patience and dual-threat positioning that make the move more or less unstoppable for Rittich. He loads the puck into a position where he could keep stick-handling past Rittich or simply pull the trigger.
His wide movement has left Rittich disoriented and created plenty of net to shoot at for the moment when—slashing across the face of goal—Kane eventually puts the netminder out of his misery with a shot slipped cheekily through the five hole to win the game.
To conclude, yes, the shootout is a gimmick, and I would rather see an extended three-on-three overtime break ties in the NHL's regular season. But, at least for now, the NHL still leans on the skills contest that is the shootout to determine winners, and, despite its inherent sense of contrivance, there are means of optimizing your chances at victory and an important point in the standings through strategy.
As Raymond, Kane, and Revak helped show, changing speeds, moving the goalie with a wide route, and keeping the puck in a position that enables a shot or pass are three easy ways to score more shootout goals.
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