D Zone Body Positioning - Jason Bourne (The Athletic)

I would love to hear what the Detroit coaching staff has to say about this goal against because it's fascinating. There's a pretty good chance this is less of a brain fart than just a single lost battle, which I know looks impossible to be true when you watch this goal:

LINK

So, a few things to note. Check out Henrik Zetterberg on the left side, and his positioning. You may remember: Jeff Blashill is a Mike Babcock disciple, and if you'll recall, Babcock has talked many times about “cutting off the top.” Here's what that looks like — the backs of Zetterberg's skates are against the boards, so the Montreal players no longer have the strong side D as an option out of the tight battle. The obvious person to pick out on this goal is Martin Frk, the right winger, whose job in the D-zone is generally to make sure the opposing D doesn't get the puck and get a shot. Or at least, that used to be the job of weak side wingers.




But this is another thing that Babcock, and I assume Blashill, talk about with regularity. Watch how their forwards play in the D-zone on any given night. When there's a battle in the weak side corner, all five guys are packed in pretty tight around that scrum. They want to give the opposing forwards no room to make a play and spread the defence out. They want to choke the play like a snake, smother it, take the puck back, and go play in the other end. They want there to be nowhere for their opponents to go. The biggest issue here?




It's body position. Gustav Nyqvist is on the wrong side of his guy in the battle. Part of choking the play is being on the defensive side of your guy, and pushing that other guy up against the glass or into the mess of bodies so again, he has nowhere to go. He's smothered. Because when you're not on the right side of your guy, and the puck pops through your feet…