Before we get into this, full marks to Ryan Stimson of The Athletic Buffalo. The inspiration for this analysis came from his recent systems breakdown, which serves as a great introductory tool for anyone looking to dive into the nuances of the game.
While he looks at systems in use across the league, we’ll take a closer look at the foundation of how the Penguins approach the game of hockey. This can also serve as a bit of a training camp primer. A lot of the drills on display at camps throughout the league are direct reflections of what coaches perceive to be areas of importance within their system. These drills are the bricks being laid for the coming year’s structure.
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It’s important to approach any systems analysis specific to the Penguins with the disclaimer that head coach Mike Sullivan has shown, on more than one occasion, that he’s more than willing to shake things up on the fly. While discussion about structure is subject to change for any team, this is especially the case in Pittsburgh. For instance, when the Tampa Bay Lightning utilized their dual-attack forecheck to put heavy pressure into the Penguins’ breakout in the 2016 conference final, Sullivan adapted. The Penguins rolled out an entirely different breakout structure facing elimination in Game 6, riding the wave of that structure all the way to the Cup-clinching Game 6 in San Jose. This, in many ways, is something that is unique to the NHL.
While the Penguins coaching staff hasn’t reinvented the wheel with any of the strategies it’s employed, it’s been able to take Day 1 structures and roll them out on the fly in big situations. While nearly every coach in the league is willing to make adjustments when problems inevitably arise, you rarely see sweeping, wholesale structure changes in the middle of the year. For the most part, coaching is about improving the structure that is already in place. That’s not always the case in Pittsburgh.
In this series, I will look at all three zones, as well as special teams. To start, let’s review the Penguins structure on the defensive side of the ice.
The identity of the Penguins under the tutelage of Sullivan is rooted in aggression. The star of the show will always be the up-tempo forecheck and quick strike offense that can create goals out of nowhere. But the theme of aggression in the Penguins’ system isn’t limited to the offense. It’s more of the same once opposing teams establish possession of the puck in the Penguins’ defensive zone. Sullivan has found a big way to put pressure on the opposition in the defensive zone is by having the team employ a puck-side overload strategy.
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For Sullivan, the ability to pressure the puck is the backbone to playing good defense. “Our team is at its best when our puck possession is diligent,” Sullivan said. “But also, when we don’t have the puck, we pursue it pretty hard and cooperatively as a group. I think we’re difficult to play against. We can suffocate teams by taking time and space away all over the rink and making them fight for every inch. We have strategies so we can work together to try and make that happen.”
For the easiest idea of how the aforementioned strategies work, draw a line through the defensive zone so you split the goal crease in half. The puck-side overload does what its name says: shifts personnel to wherever the puck is located, overloading one side of the ice. Once the puck crosses our imaginary dividing line from one side of the ice to the other, the pressure shifts along with it. Let’s take a look at this structure on paper.
In the above example, the puck is located on the far wall. The opposing team, marked by the red X’s, is attempting to establish possession of the puck and create a cycle in the defensive zone. The Penguins will shift to the far side of the ice and collapse on the puck.
The ultimate goal of this structure is to create a manpower advantage in puck-battle situations. If you outnumber the other team, you increase your chances of winning the puck battle. Pressure is generally applied immediately in the hopes of breaking up the opposing teams’ cycle before it has a chance to start.
This structure has to be fluid and players must be aware of their roles. If the puck wraps around the wall and the play shifts to the other side of the ice, the roles in the above example are reversed on the fly. In our example, F3 and D2 would immediately attack the puck, while D1 and F1 assume roles in front of the net.
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One of the key positions in this structure is the role of the F3. This is the forward removed from the puck battle, aligned in the slot area. This forward has to be cognizant defensively as they’re generally the only defensive presence in a high-danger scoring area. The role of the F3 is to protect the slot and refuse any opportunities for quick shots from the center of the ice, whether those come via a pinching defenseman or a lurking forward. On the flip side of this structure, the F3 is also the first passing option available when the Penguins recoup possession of the puck. You’ll often see the Penguins’ F3 head up ice at the first sign of regained possession to kickstart the breakout and create a safe passing option in an open area.
Let’s jump to some video and take a look at this system in action. I mentioned earlier that fluid and cohesive movement is a necessity to this style of play. Sullivan himself stated that the idea is to attack as a group. Watch this next clip and pay close attention to how the Penguins are aligned during the freeze frame.
The Sabres dump the puck in the zone and chase after it, hoping to jam the play up along the wall and keep the puck alive down low.
The Penguins immediately shift to overload the puck-side of the ice. During the freeze frame, you can see the team aligned in the exact structure we diagrammed earlier. The Sabres don’t win the puck battle, and the Penguins allow their momentum to carry them up ice, once again acting in tandem on the breakout. The Penguins clear the zone and Buffalo is forced to regroup.
One of the highlights of this structure is the ability to create difficult situations in tough areas of the ice, relegating play to the wall and keeping pucks out of high-danger areas. Take a look at the next clip.
Once again, we get a great look at the manpower advantage afforded to the Penguins by this structure. At best, the Avalanche find themselves in two-on-two situations, but there are a few areas where the Penguins boast a three on two advantage. The Avalanche aren’t just relegated to playing along the wall here, their only real option in this battle is to reverse the flow of play to the far wall and give this another try.
This system doesn’t afford the attacking team any time or space. It’s a direct relation to the way the Penguins play the game on the forecheck: wide open and in full attack.
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I mentioned earlier that it’s not uncommon to see the Penguins’ F3 fly the zone and try to kickstart the breakout. While this is a dangerous move that can leave the slot area vulnerable, if the right read is made, it can create a fast-paced breakout. Evgeni Malkin is perhaps the king of making these reads, as evidenced below. You’ll see the Penguins in their overload structure, but the F3 is missing. That F3 is Malkin, who swoops in at the perfect moment to support his teammates and create a quick breakout.
Malkin just barges his way into this sequence, bumps a defenseman off the puck and heads off to the races in the other direction. Had this not worked out as well, the Islanders would’ve had a chance for a clean look to the front of the net with no presence in the slot area.
Despite their defensive woes last season, this system worked well for the Penguins. The miscues that haunted the team were in the transition of the game. Defensemen and forwards alike misread plays and crossed signals in the neutral zone, giving opposing teams odd-man rushes by the handful. I think this is inherently reflected in last year’s on-ice results.
The Penguins did well mitigating shot opportunities last year. When it came to scoring chances, they were in the bottom half of the league.
Turnovers on the breakout and miscues in the neutral zone allowed teams to rack up high-quality chances. The Penguins best efforts defensively came once teams had established themselves in the offensive zone. In a more controlled situation, the Penguins were able to mitigate shots and keep the play wide as we saw above.
Assuming the Penguins roll out in this same structure next year, I’d expect more of the same. The Penguins defensive personnel fit right into this approach. Brian Dumoulin, Jamie Oleksiak and Jack Johnson have all proven themselves adept in the tough areas of the ice. Earlier this summer, I highlighted that Johnson specifically did a great job in front of the net, a role he’ll be asked to play again within this structure. Even the more offensive oriented defensemen in Kris Letang and Justin Schultz have proven themselves capable of wall battles. Both boast the speed to get to these loose pucks quickly and provide a high level of pressure, as is required by this system.
In camp, keep your eyes peeled for three-on-two drills that mimic these types of situations along the wall. The coaching staff will be quick to implement the habits behind this system as training camp gets underway. In the next segment, we’ll focus on the Penguins structure on the offensive side of the ice.
(AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Data courtesy of Natural Stat Trick and Corsica
