East-West Entries

It's okay to cut across the middle

North! North!

A phrase you hear from coaches all the time. Every coach wants the puck moving up the ice quickly. That’s great when you force a turnover and you can transition the puck quickly to attack at a numbers advantage. But too many times on the rush, the straight-line, simple attack is preferred and sometimes demanded by coaches. I have spoke on it before, but I think this was valued because it limits risk. The way I was taught to attack on a 3 on 2 is you kick it wide, middle lane drives the net and wide guy tries to come above and be a high guy you can hit with a pass. Again, great idea, but very, very predictable. I don’t like predictable. If they always want to hit the high guy with a pass, that’s going to be a very easy play for the goalie to read. If nothing comes available, players are often taught to throw it at the net and hope for a rebound. I don’t like hope either (when it comes to making a play). Why can’t we change the way we attack - take the puck through seams and areas on the ice that force the defending team to make decisions and sort out. We get to decide and dictate the places on the ice the puck goes and don’t get trapped into the constant straight-line idea of attack.

Every situation is different and is influenced by a ton of variables. How many teammates you have supporting you on the rush, their handedness, your handedness and the side you’re attacking on, time in the game, time in shift, their numbers on the backtrack etc etc. But for my teams, and even when I played, my favourite play whenever entering on the outside, is to try and control your skating and cut into and ACROSS the middle of the ice. Once you get the blue line, travel east-west across the zone. This was frowned upon when I played. “Don’t cut across the middle”. And maybe for good reason. Back then these kind of hits were allowed (and encouraged):

But nowadays with the focus on back tracking as hard as you can to “the house”, and with more teammates joining you in transition and on rushes to push defencemen and their gaps back, there is a real opportunity and seam to attack the area just inside the blue line and make plays going east to west. Weak side defencemen have their hands full protecting players driving down the far dot lane and aren’t interested in jumping up to make that “trolley tracks” hit anymore.

Watching the start of this NHL season, you notice the players that have the confidence and poise to read the space and pressure to attack across the ice when that seam is available. Often it leads to controlled chaos for the attacking team and confusion in sorting out for the defence. There is ALWAYS a play to be made. There should never be a reason to just dump a puck in with no plan of retrieval. That takes away from all of the hard work we do in order to gain possession of the puck. Why do we give it up so easily?

One player that has stood out to me in the smarts to attack this area when available is Nikolaj Ehlers of the Winnipeg Jets. He is blessed with incredible speed to go along with his smarts and skill, but most importantly for these plays he has the confidence to cut directly across the ice with the puck. These plays off the entry consistently create good offensive chances for his team and are actively improving the condition of the puck. This should always be the goal when you have the puck on your stick. How can you leave it in a better position for your team to succeed. By cutting across the middle, he is getting the puck into space and away from the wall, which is the hardest area to control and handle pucks. Even if he’s stick checked or loses the puck, it’s now in the middle of the ice and if we recover it we’re in a better position to continue our attack.

Look at the route Ehlers takes here after he receives the puck off the entry. He doesn’t gain the zone by himself, but once he gets it on the wall he immediately wants to come off of it and attack the middle of the ice. Watch as the back trackers cannot sort out quick enough and 4 Senators players follow the 2 Winnipeg players pushing through to the net, creating lots of time and space for Ehlers to get to the most dangerous part of the ice. Defending teams aren’t used to players attacking this seam. Some teams have clearly practiced it more, and attack the cutting man, sometimes 2v1 to try and create a high turnover, but more times than not especially at lower levels the D and backtrackers will continue through to the house. When available, this is the seam I like to see players attack. You should always be gathering information in hockey, and as you enter you should not only be looking at the strong side D or back tracker you have to face, but look where the weak side D’s eyes are. If he’s not even remotely concerned with you and more interested in protecting the house or back post, or tying up your teammate driving to the net, there is a high likelihood that this seam will be open for you.

When attacking with control and speed, you can still cut across yourself which will open a multitude of options for you to make a play.

Ehlers doesn’t end up making a pass here, instead opting to continue through middle ice to the other side and send a puck low for his linemate to retrieve. However, as he cut across some potential passing lanes did open, and if he was able to hit any of them it would have resulted in a good chance.

As he moves, you can see the eyes of all the Ottawa defenders are on him. Also, all of their sticks are moving towards him and not where they should be, defending the passing lanes of his teammates attacking through. If Ehlers was able to make an area pass through to one of his streaking teammates they could have attacked the net together for a shot or send it across the ice again for a tap-in. A much better chance created instead of what you can normally achieve in a straight-line 3v3. Cutting east-west also forces the defending team to really communicate and switch their checks. Often, this creates more confusion and 2 players go to 1, opening up a 2v1 or free lane for your team. You also usually have a 4th player joining the rush and following up from behind, so if you can drag defenders out of the middle of the ice as you move across, you may be able to drop it to your supporting teammate to attack right down Main Street.

You can also use the seam I showed earlier as a passing lane. Cole Perfetti is one of the smartest players I’ve ever watched. He is a master at controlling his speed on entries and using the high seam to cut into and across the middle, or to find a wide teammate and in doing so very much improving the condition of the puck, moving it to a player who now has time and space to attack.

Watch how Perfetti is always scanning for options, upon entry he pulls in the defender to him, waits for the backtrackers to track right through the seam and finds the weak side player joining the rush.

The pass back to him across the ice may also be available if he jumps through and around his check to the open ice. I’ve found that once you complete a pass across the middle line of the ice (Royal Road Pass), the passing lane right back across is actually open quite a bit as teams just expect you to attack the net right away once you’ve changed sides.

Once this seam is established and teams know that you’re going to be looking to exploit it upon entry, they may jump up and attack you quicker so you don’t have that time and space in the middle of the ice. This is fine, because it opens more room for your teammates and you can often find the weak side D in open ice as the coverage has vacated that spot to worry more about you. Ehlers and Perfetti both do an excellent job of realizing when pressure is coming, and moving the puck to a teammate who has more space to make a play.

There are so many reasons I love my players to be mindful of this seam on entry. So much can be created from it and it creates headaches for the defencemen and trackers. Like anything, there is balance to be found. Should you try and attack this seam and the middle of the ice as much as possible? I think so. But there is also still value in driving a defenceman wide and back when you have speed and a step. There’s still value in faking outside and beating a defenceman 1on1 to the net. But the beauty of establishing this seam as an option off your entries, is the opposing team now has to respect it and it will move their coverage and sticks just slightly in order to open up the more traditional ways of attacking off the rush. Once they adjust back to your team moving more north off the entry, you can switch back to east-west. It’s a constant game of adjustments and counter adjustments.

It also gives your players the confidence to attack east-west all over the offensive zone and shows that you prioritize pucks getting off the wall quickly. It takes smart players to recognize this seam when it’s available and weigh if it’s the best option upon entry, all while carrying the puck. But more importantly, it takes confident and empowered players, who have been taught and shown by their coach that this is a valuable option. It will add to their habits of attacking middle ice, awareness, playing in traffic, creating space, and move your team more towards the style of play I prefer - which is using creativity and unpredictability towards the other team while reading and understanding the movements and habits of your teammates.

I cheer every time I see an NHL player use this seam. Hopefully we see more of it going forward.