Systems Analysis: How the Bruins Beat the Wings

Heading into the season defense was a major question mark for the Red Wings. After striking out in free agency the talk of attempted upgrades (Tyler Myers anyone?) have followed the team all season. Despite this talk, the Wings started the season playing extremely well defensively giving up the least amount of shot attempts per 60 at even strength (45.7). So in one corner, the stats suggest that the strength of this team is defending. However, the eye test says that the Red Wings were dismantled by the Boston Bruins on Monday night due to the lack of skill on our back-end. I'll show how the new defensive systems have somewhat allowed the team to cover up the lack of elite defenders, but how this weakness can still be exploited by the league's elite.

A couple weeks ago Travis Yost posted an interesting article over at tsn.ca which you can check out here. While the goal of every team is, or at least should be, to possess the puck, teams go about it in very different ways. The two main ways to be successful are by controlling the neutral zone or by being more effective inside the offensive and defensive zones. To see how effective teams are at generating offense after entering the zone Travis measured the number of occurrences a team recorded two or more shot-attempts within 10-seconds of one another.

Based on the graph you can see that the Red Wings have a drastically lower amount of these shifts both for and against. This would seem to match with what I've seen as I am consistently upset by the tendency for the Red Wings to get only 1 shot before the opposition breaks out. However part of this lack of offense comes from the team's focus on preventing multiple shots by the opposition. One of the systematic ways they prevent multi-shot shifts both for and against is through their incredibly aggressive forecheck and the equally aggressive back-checking. Here is an example from the game against the Bruins Monday night.

It starts with an aggressive forecheck, the Red Wings use their speed to eliminate the Bruin's time and space.

The aggressiveness on the forecheck forces the defender to make a tough play to their winger on the breakout.

The tough pass, as well as Zetterberg's positioning, allows Ericsson to be aggressive and pinch down on the Bruin's winger. Now the Bruins have to make two passes under duress in order to escape their zone.

In this case Marchand makes a nice play and the Bruins are able to escape the zone and seem to be ready to attack with speed.

However as they cross center ice look at the Red Wing's defensive shape. Z has come back to cover for Ericsson creating a 2-2. In addition, Datsyuk is covering the center of the ice, forcing the Bruin's forward down the wall and Abby is in a position to cover the last forward if Ericsson is unable to recover.

In the end Ericsson actually stayed with Marchand after the pinch meaning the Wings have 5 players back to defend the 3 Bruin forwards. This swarming back pressure makes it difficult for the opposition to carry the puck into the zone and create offense. It also keeps pressure and responsibility off the Red Wing defenders as they have backup from the forwards if they were to get beat.

The downside of this systems is that while it leads to a dramatic decrease in shot attempts against, it also affects the Red Wing's ability to generate offense. You can see that the Wing’s have all 3 forwards back behind the puck, making it difficult for the Red Wings to counter attack. Since the forwards have come so far back into the defensive zone they have less opportunity to generate speed following the eventual turnover. The Bruins defenders also have time to gap up and take away the Red Wing's time and space.

So the defensive system leads to the dump and chase hockey we would expect to see from a neutral zone trap team, despite the Red Wing's incredible skill and speed. However this does not explain why the Red Wings give up more multi-chance shifts than they create. My explanation for this is that once in the zone, it is harder to hide the Red Wing's weaknesses on the back end and teams are able to cycle the puck and create opportunities. This was very apparent against Boston, one of the better teams at generating these multi-shot shifts due to their strength and ability to win pucks down low.

So to start the Red Wings again have all 5 players back to defend the 3 Bruins and as a result force a dump in.

Glendening is the first one to the puck, and thanks to the Red Wing's trademark "interference" from Ericsson there is time to make a play and start the breakout.

For whatever reason the Red Wings lose the puck and are unable to make the play. After a short wall battle the Bruin's come up with it and look to attack the net.

Now because of the battle the Red Wing forwards have dropped down towards the crease to provide support in case of this exact scenario. Not wanting to let the Bruin's forward go directly to the net, Weiss drops down and helps out the Red Wing's defender who was beaten behind the net.

By leaving his point coverage Weiss allows an easy shot from the point, but the Red Wings would much rather allow this shot than a shot from in tight.

The bigger problem comes after the shot. Despite having all 5 players down low, the Red Wings are unable to get to the rebound.

The Bruin's come up with the puck and the puck carrier has again gotten away from his defender. Thus, Weiss is again forced to drop down to provide backup and cover for the Red Wing's defender.

After an easy pass to the point we are right back to where we started and the Bruins get another shot on goal. Two shots on goal that all could have been avoided by winning the race to pucks and moving the puck quickly.

When they are skating and working hard the Red Wings are aggressive on the forecheck, generating turnovers they can turn into offense. Despite this aggressiveness, the forwards work equally hard on the backcheck and force the opposition to dump it in rather than carry it and create one-on-ones against our defenders. After the dump in, the Red Wings rely on their team speed to win races to the puck and get out of their zone quickly. When the Red Wing's struggle to move the puck well, like Monday night, they are forced into more 50-50 battles. Against a strong team like the Bruins this problem is compounded as the opposition's success in these battles forces the Red Wings to collapse into the slot. The result is a continual barrage of shots from the points and battles for the rebound. Against the Bruins the Red Wings gave up 3 goals at even strength, a screened point shot, a rebound/scramble off an initial point shot and backdoor pass after the Bruins win the race following a missed point shot. The Red Wings have an obvious weakness on their back-end, despite lacking elite puck movers the Red Wings succeed by keeping teams to the outside. However if the current defenders are unable to win the battle that follows, the system is all for naught.