Joe Patarino After a game with a litany of defensive zone breakdowns in Calgary, the LA Kings shored things up in Edmonton en route to a stingy 3-1 win. Here, we’ll look at what went right, specifically highlighting one defensive zone shift from Wednesday night.
Neither game was particularly impressive from a puck-possession standpoint. Against the Flames, the Kings had 43% of the shot attempts at 5-on-5, and against Edmonton, just 40% (per Natural Stat Trick). However, I venture to guess that the game against Edmonton was by design. LA was much more willing to have Edmonton have the puck along the outside and limit them to high-danger chances.
That is reflected in the stats. Calgary had 18 high-danger chances of 50:35 of 5-on-5 hockey, while Edmonton had just 10 in 50:57 minutes (per NST). Oh, and the Kings also blocked 29 Oilers shot attempts.
So, how did LA accomplish this? One reason was their neutral zone was superb. They were able to establish their 1-3-1 much more effectively against Edmonton than Calgary. Second, a commitment to individual responsibility in the defensive zone and excellent communication.
*Videos via InStat
The TNT broadcast did an excellent job breaking down the first part of that, the 1-3-1 neutral zone that the LA Kings deployed:
Next, I want to break down a shift by the Anze Kopitar line in the first period. This is a perfect example of a group of players recognizing their assignments but communicating when needed as things became chaotic. We saw numerous examples against Calgary of one player losing their man and everything breaking down. It is a shift like this that makes the Kings successful.
First, the neutral zone. The Kings do a nice job of not allowing a dangerous entry, and they’re able to break up the initial pass attempt when Edmonton gets into the zone because of it.
Once the puck ends up staying in the zone, here is an example of everyone eventually settling into their positions. But I really want to point out, watch what happens as the play starts to shift down. Unlike against Calgary, you can visually see Adrian Kempe and Gabriel Vilardi talking to each other, pointing out who has who.
The puck has moved up to the left point, which is another opportunity for things to fall apart as the offensive players start moving around. There is even a switch by the Oilers at the top of the zone, but the Kings don’t lose focus and keep their assignments. It is because of communication the Kings maintain their man-on-man structure.
So though LA was very much second-best in shot attempts, that can be misleading. The New York Islanders made a living doing that for years, spending the vast majority of their time in the defensive zone but allowing nothing of high danger and winning low-scoring games.
I don’t expect the Kings to do this on most nights, they’re generally a very good possession team, but I give the coaching staff a lot of credit here. You’re coming off a terrible defensive game and walking into a building that is home to two of the world’s best players in, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. Rather than try to eliminate them completely, you try your best to neutralize them. I think that’s exactly what the Kings did on Wednesday. The team held the duo to a combined seven shot attempts, one high-danger attempt, and just two combined shots on goal at 5-on-5.
Sometimes, the bend-don’t-break model is the right way to go, and when you have the team buy-in like LA did, it can lead to a W.
We’ll see if the LA Kings can bring this defensive play to Vancouver on Friday.
(Main photo credit: Andy Devlin, NHL)