One of them new-fangled puck movers
The evolution of sports is an interesting beast. Forever embedded in the American (and Canadian) consciousness, competition and loyalty can breed life long interest and devotion. People spend countless hours over countless years watching their idols. The love of the sweater eventually outlives all the players you grew up watching and those who have long faded into oblivion. As players come and go, the game changes around them. Some embrace the evolution, some fail to evolve and their time within the game draws to a close.
The evolution tends to come in common themes. Players get bigger, faster, and more skilled. They are better trained, with their talented cultivated from younger and younger ages. The game itself develops more specialized roles for players and matchups and statistics become more prevalent. Trends emerge, science is tested and every team tries to gain that competitive advantage.
Hockey is no different than any other sport in this regard, except its evolution has been at the same time, both drastic and subtle. We can point to rule changes and lockouts in seeking explanation for hockey’s behind the scenes metamorphosis, but there is no doubt; the game is different today.
I grew up watching and playing hockey in the 90’s. It was a fantastic era of larger than life players. The laundry list of generational stars was massive. The Rangers won a Stanley Cup, which was a crowning memory of my childhood. We had Jeff Buekeboom patrolling the crease and inflicting pain on anyone who dared come near Mike Richter. The game was diverse (not racially, of course, but by type of player), interesting and full of excitement.
Then the clutching and grabbing started. Goalie gear started to inflate to gargantuan proportions. Generational stars began to fade away with only poor facsimiles to take their place. Then, the lockout came, followed by the salary cap. Rule changes abound. The mid-2000’s featured sloppy, uninteresting play. The game was in the midst of a transition. And when the dust settled, we began to look at the science of the game.
Hockey has historically been defined by its basics. Get the puck deep, finish your checks, and keep the wingers outside. Keep your head up, move your feet and make sure the puck clears the blue line. These concepts are grafted to the very fabric of the sport. Just like “location, location, location”, even if you don’t understand what they mean, they are now so ubiquitous; you believe them to the core.
Now, we have begun studying what is effective on the ice; what helps breed championship clubs. Many of the results and “truths” of this little science experiment have come at the expense of what we have historically believed to be true. A rift of sorts has developed between segments of the hockey community as these fundamentals have begun to shift. We have seen it quite a bit in our own comments section here at BSB.
On one hand, we have those who feel that size, grit, physicality and the traditional stay-at-home defenseman still have a place in the modern game. Conversely, we have those who believe the future lies in speed and skill, puck possession and effective defense to offense transition. This has forced us to examine our definition of certain things. Historically, defense has been defined as how well you can neutralize and opposing player who is in possession of the puck. Keeping the play out of the danger areas and the front of the net clear were tantamount to effective defensive play.
Now, the definition has been tweaked. We now know, through scientific evaluation, that not only is the neutralization of the scoring chance important, but the transition in possession is equally, if not more important to quality defense. Think about it in simple terms for a minute. If a player can defend an oncoming rush; pushing the offensive player to the outside, stick checking the puck into the corner and keeping the front of the net clear, those are good things. The problem is when possession is never recovered; the offense begins to wear down those defenders, creating additional scoring chances and prolonged zonetime.
The flip side to this is when you have a defender who is a high end skater, with the ability to not only suppress shot attempts and maintain in-zone coverage, but the ability to recover the puck and effectively transition to offense. Not only does this lead to less time defending, but also can catch aggressive offensive players behind the puck.
Between the debate valuing shot suppression and physicality versus skating and puck movement, a key central variable gets a bit overshadowed: the ability to separate the offensive player from the puck. This comes down to many traditional skills, such as gap control, board work and stick skills. Currently, it is very difficult to analyze those things in the current statistical environment. We have to rely on the eye test.
This goes back to my original point about evolution. Typically, forwards develop faster than defensemen, and I think this is true of the systems and skillsets as the game evolves, as well. Forwards developed more speed and skill, and the evolution of the defensive position lagged behind. Defenders were split into two general categories during this period: offensive and defensive defensemen. In response to the additional speed and skills the forwards were bringing to the table, defensive defensemen compensated by collapsing and shot blocking. Offensive defensemen took more chances and attempted to create more offensive opportunities.
Goaltenders were similar over the years. The hybrid style and the full blocking butterfly style eventually merged into the system that we have today. The blending of the yin and yang created a much more complete goaltender than existed on their own. I feel the same has now beset the defensemen. What we are looking at now are many players who embody one defensive theory or the other, with fairly glaring deficiencies. It seems like Aaron Ekblad is starting to pioneer a new breed of defensemen that creates a hybrid of both models.
The NHL is moving in a direction where offense will continue to be created more by a five-man unit than ever before. The skating ability of defensemen will continue to be valued highly going forward, and the hulking, crease clearing defenseman will continue to be more and more marginalized. However, a new hybrid style is emerging, and should hopefully put an end to this philosophical divide sooner rather than later.
Share: