PWHL Toronto has adopted a free flowing "positionless" style as Curtis Martin writes, and it's paying dividends offensively for the team.
PWHL Toronto has adopted a free flowing "positionless" style as Curtis Martin writes, and it's paying dividends offensively for the team.
PWHL Toronto secured their eighth win in a row with a 3-1 victory over Boston Wednesday evening.
Goals from Natalie Spooner, Maggie Connors and Allie Munroe lead Toronto to a dominant win over their Boston rivals.
Here are my thoughts on the game.
Free Flowing Style Creates Chances
One of the big differences during the team's winning streak has been the positionless style of play that coach Troy Ryan has implemented with this Toronto team.
This has led to the routine sight of Toronto’s defence travelling deep into the offensive zone to help supply another option in the attack and support to the forward core.
This was no different against Boston, as the team's first goal of the game came from blueliner. Minutes into the game Allie Munroe found herself in the blue paint and in the perfect position to bury home the rebound off of Sarah Nurse’s chance to give Toronto the lead.
“Think it's something we've talked about a lot of the D-core and we've been working on just jumping in the rush and now being an offensive threat,” said Munroe. “It's good to see it paying off. You see Joc (Larocque) doing it all the time so you just try to follow suit."
The offensive presence of Toronto’s defence was also prevalent as Olivia Knowles found herself wide open in the slot for a one-timer in the second, but in the end, she could not capitalize on the high-quality chance.
These moments have been critical for Toronto over their streak as the free-flowing positionless style of play has given opponents a new look to defend against and Toronto more options when they do attack on the rush.
“We generally want our five players interchangeable. If they see an opportunity to jump into the play, we want them to jump into the play,” said Ryan. “We also don't want the mentality of the forward having to cover for the D if the D makes a good decision and a good read we want four or five and on their offense."
Scoring Options and Depth
Toronto's offense continued to be accomplished through the production of multiple players in the lineup.
Toronto has had 14 different players score for them this season, with many players having picked up their first goal over the team's recent streak of success.
“Spooner took off and ran with a lot of individual goals,” said Ryan. “But as a team, if we're going to be successful, I think it's going to be through scoring by committee."
Wednesday, Munroe continued that trend as she scored her first of the season with Spooner’s league-leading twelfth goal extending the team's lead late in the fame. Maggie Connors scored her third goal of the season to extend the lead for Toronto late in the second period.
The variety in scoring can be seen throughout the boxscores in Toronto’s recent wins with multiple players scoring goals for the club. This includes a surge in Sarah Nurse’s game where she has tallied two multi-goal performances in the team's last four games.
With the depth scoring combined with the offensive production of Nurse and Spooner, it will be hard for teams to combat Toronto’s waves of offensive attack.
“I think our team is gelling, and our lines are going and it's great when, you know, we get everyone contributing,” said Spooner. “I think that that's the case and you see it in this eight-game win streak. I don't think one player can ever win a game, we need everyone going and I think our team is really going right now."
Defence held strong
Beside a beautiful shot from Jess Healey, Toronto stumped Boston offensively.
In the game, Toronto only allowed six shots in the slot as the majority of Boston’s attack was forced out toward the boards or had their shot blocked giving them little room to create offensively.
In tonight's game, Toronto blocked 12 shots and were routinely back giving little to no odd-man chances for Boston to take advantage of.
Despite this Troy Ryan said to the media that he feels that there is still more to work on in his team's game, especially late.