What would a strategy that maximizes offensive spacing look like?

[MVP of West Hollywd]

Not sure if this is the right forum or not but in terms of generally analytically friendly movements in the future...

The NBA and NFL offensive style of play has changed due to spacing more than just having smaller players. The NHL has gotten smaller with more mobile defenseman however this is good for preventing goals as much as scoring them.

If someone in the future was the Mike D'Antoni of the NHL and figured out a new revolutionary system based on creating more space, how do you think they would do it? Is it plausible having a guy standing in front of the net looking for deflections and rebounds was stupid this whole time and that you should have 5 guys standing around the perimeter? Or is the fact that the highest percentage shots in front of the net and that more space means the goalie can see it makes the spacing hypothesis incorrect?

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[Filthy Dangles]

Idk, not to ruin your thread or idea but spacing just really isn't a thing in hockey. You can't score from the perimeter of the rink like you can in football and basketball.

Hockey is about making time and space to make a play, not spreading out your offensive players.

In terms of strategy, maybe having a winger blow the zone on breakouts? Running set plays in the offensive zone like that one where the winger retreats to the blueline to try and suck the D higher.

 

[dahrougem2]

There was nothing revolutionary about the NBA - teams simply realized that shooting more 3's resulted in a potential for scoring more points. The percentages backed up the theory, and thus we have this "spacing" element to the modern-day NBA game where even 7 footers are now asked to shoot 3's. Everyone shoots 3's.

The only comparable thing to that for me is how most young players skate in today's game. You can see from the 1st line to the 4th line, almost everyone can skate the same (obvious outliers such as McDavid/MacKinnon/etc).

In terms of offensive strategy, you can see it with a lot of teams how the offensive strategy has shifted towards "spacing" in the offensive zone. Used to be three forwards down low, two defensemen up high. Now you're starting to see one forward come up high and occupy the middle spot on the blue line while the two defensemen spread to each side near the boards, leaving two forwards down low to play against two defensemen. Creates a lot more space but also means a lot more shots from the point hoping for deflections/rebounds.

Not really sure what else can be implemented in the offensive zone playing such a fast paced game.

 

[Michael Farkas]

The problem with your thesis or question is that it gives a connotation that space is permanent. The "permanent" space in hockey is the unwanted space because of the central location of the goal (unlike American football) and with no bonus points for shot difficulty (like basketball). Bad players play in the margin for a disproportionate amount of time - players that lack interior skill, defensemen that lack hockey sense, etc.

The key is creating quick elements of space. Not only horizontally, but also vertically. Then you need to use player traits for/against to find out where you can open up space in useful areas. There's an element of coaching and an element of advanced scouting that goes into this. Tampa is a plus in both, thus their success of the last several years. Doesn't hurt that they have an abundance of skill - and even though one of their stars was a non-participant last time and generally uninterested this time, they'll win again.

 

[PROGFAN66]

Not sure if this is the right forum or not but in terms of generally analytically friendly movements in the future...

The NBA and NFL offensive style of play has changed due to spacing more than just having smaller players. The NHL has gotten smaller with more mobile defenseman however this is good for preventing goals as much as scoring them.

If someone in the future was the Mike D'Antoni of the NHL and figured out a new revolutionary system based on creating more space, how do you think they would do it? Is it plausible having a guy standing in front of the net looking for deflections and rebounds was stupid this whole time and that you should have 5 guys standing around the perimeter? Or is the fact that the highest percentage shots in front of the net and that more space means the goalie can see it makes the spacing hypothesis incorrect?

You are talking about stretching the offense strategy which is all over the place in hockey? You will see that principle on low to high /high to low plays, overloading on one side and leaving the weakside player on the other side. Changing the point of attack is also a common approach.

One interesting approach on the breakout is the stretch pass play where a player goes deep leaving the skaters underneath open sounds like football right. On the rush style of play spacing is critical because you don't want the players to be close to each other.

Now you can argue that spacing in hockey is actually more important than that is in basketball as you don't have an offside rule and you can simply shoot the ball over the defense.

This is not the case in hockey. You have three zones and you need to find ways to create spacing and yes be more inventive.

 

[Habsrule]

With hockey I feel as if you will always need to have that player around the net in the offensive zone. When you see how the goals are scored the majority are not from pretty plays. They come from tips and rebounds and goal mouth scrambles and broken plays. Also with the size of goalies and their equipment, if they can see a shot from distance then they will save it. You need a guy there to screen or tip a puck.

 

[The Macho King]

With hockey I feel as if you will always need to have that player around the net in the offensive zone. When you see how the goals are scored the majority are not from pretty plays. They come from tips and rebounds and goal mouth scrambles and broken plays. Also with the size of goalies and their equipment, if they can see a shot from distance then they will save it. You need a guy there to screen or tip a puck.

My hot take is that goal mouth scrambles don't actually lead to a ton of goals. Tips and clean-ish rebounds, yeah, but when you're just banging the puck into a butterfly goalie from two feet away all you're doing is pumping your xG numbers and improving the goalie's save percentage.

That's why xG darlings like Brendan Gallagher and Brady Tkachuk don't end up with regular 35+ goal seasons like their xG would suggest. But that's neither here nor there.