A big reason why teams like the Islanders have been so successful in the playoffs.

Many of the brightest stars in the NHL fell early in the 2020 postseason, their great individual talent stifled by extensive defensive structures. It’s a reminder that while top players usually have the most pull, a group committed to shutting them down can haul itself up even higher in playoff rounds. 

Teams like the New York Islanders, Vegas Golden Knights, and Columbus Blue Jackets lined up impressive performances in the last few weeks by applying great defensive principles all over the ice. Those formations don’t wait for opponents to enter their end of the ice before thinking about shutting them down. They coordinate themselves to do so even when they still have control of the puck.

How? By having their attackers move up-ice in ways that guard against counterattacks. It doesn’t mean that they forfeit offence. Quite the contrary, good defensive positioning often aligns with good offensive positioning. 

1. Defending by activating

By skating up-ice with their forwards, defencemen can cross the offensive blue line at just the right time to receive drop passes and shoot from the top of the slot. But blueliners activating with the rush also has another benefit — it reduces the gap between opponents and the defensive line at the top of the offensive zone. If the puck turns over, the other team has less space to organize a counter-rush. 

In the video above, Shea Theodore, the weak-side defenceman, runs to the offensive zone with the first line of the Golden Knights. William Karlsson misses a cross-ice pass and the puck bounces to a Canuck. As Theodore followed his forwards up-ice, however, he put himself in a perfect position to swat the puck away from the opposing stick and back down the zone, reestablishing the offensive presence of his team. 

2. Moving above the puck

There’s an inner battle in all forwards — they want to score, but have to limit risk. This conflict between offence and defence peaks in puck battles on the sideboards of the offensive zone.

Forwards approaching the scrums can either slide above the battle to act as safety net or descend into the slot, gambling that the team will win the puck back and manage a pass in that area. 

This choice might seem inconsequential in the moment, but can have great repercussions. Stepping below the puck creates scoring chances once in a while, but it drastically increases the chance of odd-man rushes against. 

When forwards, especially the high ones (F3), consistently choose to step above contested pucks, they suppress the rush offence of the opposition, which can lead to equally good offensive looks. After creating a turnover, a high forward has a chance to come back down deceptively in the slot to receive a pass. 

When the play moves side-to-side in the offensive zone, F3 moving high also enables defencemen to pinch on the walls to stop opposing breakouts and keep the puck in the offensive zone. 

The video above shows how the positioning of forwards in the offensive zone influences the play. Their defensive presence helps their team win the puck back and create scoring chances; their defensive absence leads to clean breakouts and scoring chances for the other team. 

In the first clip, the F3 work of Anders Lee and Jordan Eberle stops the breakout of the Flyers. The puck springs to Mathew Barzal, who then finds Eberle in the open slot.

3. Angling the breakout

If the opposition does manage to initiate a breakout, strong defensive teams refrain from pressuring the puck carrier head-on. Attackers can easily pass or dangle around lunging defensive sticks. 

To contain and stop the breakout, a disciplined defence keeps their numbers above the puck. The high defensive forward (F3) angles the puck carrier to the boards and closes down all skating space. If the puck can’t be won back immediately by executing an angling manoeuvre, the high forward still points his skates in the direction of the net to continue pressuring the play on the backcheck. 

In the first few clips in the video below, F3 pressures the puck carrier to the boards. They keep their sticks to the middle and trace an arc to angle opposing carriers to the boards and deny passing options and skating space. Next in the video is a clip of a defensive forward lunging at an attacker, creating odd-man rushes the other way. 

The best defensive teams don’t rely solely on their defensive zone structure; they kill the play up-ice. By attacking up-ice as a group, by favouring a defensive side positioning in scrums, and by pressuring opposing puck-carriers in arcs, they shut down the opposition as early as possible.

Players of all levels want to play offence as much as possible. One of the best ways to do that is to create solid defensive habits in the offensive zone.