Reply To: Boucher DZ

[Bostonian in SoCal]

I got a chance to watch the Lightning play the Ducks the other week. It seemed to me that in the NZ the 1-3-1 was intended to force a dump and the combination of the goalie stopping any wrap around attempt and deep D man getting a 20ft head start on the fore-checker allowed TB to turn the puck up quickly up ice in transition and put the pressure back on Anaheim. The Ducks countered by using a little chip off the board to get the puck just in behind the 3 and having the next closest forward go off to the races. Your basic close support to isolate a 2 on 1. It started generating odd man chances for the Ducks. The Lightning stayed the course, I assume because even though they were giving up opportunities, they were also still generating them. The Ducks finally figured out that they if they gained possession quickly after a TB rush that TB was so committed to the rush that they could move the puck easily up ice with long passes in transition to generate their own rush. The result was very exciting wide open hockey that I haven't seen in the NHL since the 80's. What TB didn't count on was that this open style of play awakened some primal urge in Selanne to turn on the after burners. For the better part of the 3rd period he was a one man show for the Ducks and looked like the guy that had the 130 pt season for the Jets. Selanne eventually netted the game winner in OT.

Funny aside: The game started out with about 10 line changes in the first 2 minutes of the game. It seemed that Boucher was determined to get a matchup and Carlyle was having none of it. They changed so often and so quickly that wasn't able to figure out exactly what matchup Boucher was going for and who finally gave in.

We too have been running the 1-3-1 PP. Its the exact setup that Tom detailed here in an earlier post. The key is the rotation into the 1-3-1 from the Overload forces the PK to leave an open shot from just above the high slot or a one timer to the faceoff circle, both with traffic in front. I have my PP rotate back into the Overload if the PK adjusts by rotating into the diamond, which creates another mismatch until they rotate back into the box. The result has been that my PP is producing 6-7 times more quality scoring opportunities than with just the overload. It allowed me to put the decision making into the hands of my D, who are much better at that skill than my F's. If only Ye Hockey Gods would be so kind as to bestow my team with some scoring touch.