In my role as a hockey columnist, I’m constantly looking for worthwhile topics to dig into around the NHL. I keep a notebook nearby, and jot things down as they pop into my head.
Some become articles (sometimes prospects get unlucky in pre-season), and others fall by the wayside as other more deserving topics pop up.
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Just because they don’t get the full article treatment doesn’t mean they’re not worthwhile, though. So periodically throughout this season, I thought it’d be fun to dig into my notebook and clean up the bits and bites.
So without further ado, here’s a handful of those.
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Time to call icing on the penalty kill
I’m fully convinced it’s time to stop allowing short-handed teams to ice the puck.
First, a team just committed an infraction. The game has decided that what they did was illegal, so a player goes to the penalty box and that team has to play a man down. Why are they then rewarded with leniency in the rules that the other team isn’t afforded? That alone makes no sense.
Next, I think if penalties penalize teams more, we’ll see cleaner hockey, which could open up the game offensively. If PPs go from converting 15-25 percent of the time to 25-35 percent, players might think twice about that extra little hook they might be able to sneak in.
And lastly, how much better would it be if penalty killing players had to find other solutions to the mind-numbing charade that is the iced puck on the power play? Right now, lines change, the power play D-man stands around and waits, players lollygag back … you’re telling me we don’t want to get rid of that exercise?
You would be forced to ice more skilled PKers who could skate, who could make passes and just generally play. That’s where the game is going, anyway. More players, less lumbering bodies standing in shot lanes and firing pucks down the ice.
Babcock is right about Hyman
On Thursday, Toronto Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock met with the media and was asked about the possibility of Patrick Marleau joining Auston Matthews and William Nylander on the Leafs top line. Babs, with juuust a hint of condescension, let the reporters know his stance on that.
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Here’s the nut of his comments:
“Hyman’s a guy who gets the puck back all the time. When you’re a good player, I’ve learned from good players, they like to have the puck. When you have three guys who want the puck — like Datsyuk used to tell me all the time, ‘No, put him on someone else’s line. I want a guy to get me the puck.’ He (Hyman) gets the puck back better than anyone.”
I saw a number of tweets that seemed to challenge Babcock’s comments, particularly these:
Babcock re: Hyman, “He gets the puck back better than anyone.”
Hyman was 8th amongst TML forwards recovering pucks last season, 6th in OZ.— Mike Kelly (@MikeKellyNHL) September 22, 2017
Auston Matthews recovered over 800 loose pucks in the offensive zone last season, almost 200 more than next Leafs forward. AM was top 5 NHL.
— Mike Kelly (@MikeKellyNHL) September 22, 2017
I don’t know what exactly that data represents – whether it’s just 5-on-5, or in vastly different minutes on ice. I have no idea what happens after they recover the puck, as Tyler Dellow noted here. I also have no idea what’s considered a recovery. But here’s what I can tell you:
Zach Hyman as F1 gets the opposing defensemen stopped. That’s more than half the battle right there. When opposing D have the puck with solid possession, Hyman closes incredibly fast, has an excellent stick, will stop and start and tie up, all of which allows his linemates to dig out pucks. That could have something to do with Matthews numbers above. I’ve truly never seen a player do it as well as Hyman does, ever. He’s like a calf roper.
So yes, I want a guy playing with Matthews and Nylander — who both put up absolute best-case-scenario numbers in their one year with Hyman – who gets the puck in their hands.
There’s also a concept Dellow hinted at in his article on Ales Hemsky, and who he should play with. At some point when you put three offensive juggernauts on one line, you run into the law of diminishing returns. They all need touches to do what they do, but there’s only one puck. Hell, the Leafs 5-on-5 goal leaders from last year — Matthews, Van Riemsdyk and Kadri — played on three different lines. Again: one puck.
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And finally – and this is no small point — you don’t want to waste Hyman on the fourth line freeing up extra touches for players who can’t turn them into anything. As far as I’m concerned, he’s playing right where he should be be.
Why they’re cleaning up the faceoff circle
If you were a center playing in the AHL’s North Division last year, you probably struggled at the dot against the Syracuse Crunch. Byron Froese, Tanner Richard, Yanni Gourde, Matthew Peca, and Gabriel Dumont were some of the best faceoff men the league had to offer.
Part of the reason they were, though, was that they cheated, much in the same way so many NHL centers did. (And for the record, that’s not sour grapes. You’re clear to do whatever you can that the ref allows, so that’s not on them.)
But because refs had become so accustomed to letting centers’ skates come across the front part of the delineated area they were supposed to stay behind, their skates were damn near on the dot as the puck was dropped. On top of that, they’d have their bodies on such an angle that by the time the puck dropped, they just had to move their closest foot six inches, and they could block out the opposing center’s stick.
Basically the idea was that to get to the puck, the opposing player would have to go over, or through that skate. If you went over, you were too late, as the draw had already been lost. And if you went through you could take down the off-balance center, but you still didn’t win your team the puck.
You could do the same thing against this, but that just results in a mutual tie-up (which is what ends up happening, as nobody wants to lose the draw clean).
It was almost anti-competitive. The puck would drop, and there would be a glut of bodies, no movement, and it would be a rugby scrum for the puck.
Players and coaches weren’t asking for sweeping changes here. The refs are just returning to calling the rules, which should bring faceoffs back to something that takes timing, speed and strength.
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Smart people disagree
I feel like whenever two hockey humans disagree on Twitter, there’s some sense it’s personal. It doesn’t need to be.
In any dressing room I’ve been in, players who saw the same play disagree on what happened, and what should’ve happened. Coaches breaking down video in hyper-slow-mo can watch the same 10 seconds of a game and disagree three times on who should’ve done what. And, yes, it can get heated, but it almost always leads to productive conclusions.
Hockey is a game with structure, but sometimes there are reads on who should go check a guy and who should cover the net. Sometimes structure breaks down and players need to make judgment calls.
Disagreeing about what should’ve happened in these moments leads to really thinking about the game, about cause and effect, and often, it leads to new solutions. So yes, Twitter, it’s okay to call people out, it’s okay to disagree. It makes us all smarter hockey fans.
(Photo credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports)