Forechecks of Antiquity
Winning Forechecks from History
Last time, we covered three of the forechecks you might see in a modern NHL game. This time, we hop in the time machine and take a look at some of the strategies employed by teams of the past. Notably, ones that one Stanley Cups.
Positional Forecheck
These days, everything is F1, F2, and F3. There are rotations, there are support positions, there is structure. This was not the case in the 1960s. There was the left wing, who defended the left side, the right wing, who defended the right side, and the center, who defended everywhere.
The Montreal Canadiens used a particular version of this forecheck to great effect. To my knowledge, there is not a name for it, and it we used modern numerical designations, it would be a "3-2" or a "3-0-2". So for brevity's sake, we'll just call it the positional forecheck.
It plays almost like a trap, just very high up the ice instead of in the neutral zone. If the puck was in the middle of the ice, the center would stay above the goal line, just looking to block passing lanes, waiting for the defenseman to pick one side or the other to skate out. Positioning is strict, and players are disciplined about it: the center will never be to the left of the left wing or to the right of the right wing.
Once the defender skates out to one side, the center swings behind the goal, cutting off and East-West passes, and closes in to double team the puck with the strong-side winger. They close in, and they double team if they can. The weak-side winger could theoretically play an F3 role, plugging up any passing lanes and slowing a counter-attack, but in practice the weak-side winger mostly chilled and waited to see where the puck would go.
A lot of the modern conceptions of positional roles come from this style of play. People want centers who can tirelessly chase the puck around the ice and wingers who can win puck battles. This strategy uses a lot of the same principles as modern forechecks, and there's no reason it couldn't work today, especially as something a designated checking line uses or as a change-up from a usual strategy.
No tactic is infallible, and this one has some noticeable shortcomings:
- Without players who can fill the desired roles, this setup is dead in the water. You need the physicality on the wings and the speed from the center.
- The center is covering more ground than any other player on the ice, and might tire out faster than expected
- Like a modern 2-1-2, this is an all-or-nothing forecheck. But with no wave of support players, a prime counter-attacking lane opens up if the forwards get beaten
The Trap
The classic trap lines up in a 1-2-2 formation, although more conservative than the 1-2-2 we know and love today. It's designed to funnel the puck into a place where the puck carrier had no choice but to dump it. It relies on an obnoxious degree of patience and discipline from defenders, but as long as they can hit, they don't need to be very fast, or make great reads, or do much of anything.
F1: Hassles the puck carrier, forcing them wide to one side or the other.
F2: Waits inside the blue line, then continues angling the puck all the way to the red line
F3: Waits inside the blue line, then cuts off any East-West passes
D1: Steps up to the puck carrier, hoping to force a dump-in
D2: Fills the middle in case the puck carrier gets through, recovers a dump-in
In the hands of disciplined players, the trap is a formidable machine, even today. But in its prime, the rules of hockey made it almost unstoppable. The two-line pass compressed the space, allowing defensemen to step up higher. Clutch-and-grab rules allowed players to slow down off-puck players and take away passing options, and to slow down the puck carrier, forcing them into the teeth of the defense. There was basically no interference penalty for late hits, either, so a player who dumped the puck was liable to get their memory erased by even the slowest defensemen, making it all but impossible to chase after a dump-in. People can argue about which one of those was most important to the strategy's success, but all three made it extremely difficult to score.
In 2006, the rules changed, many of which were designed specifically to avoid the trap. It was seen as an unappealing way to play the sport, leading to static, scoreless hockey.
These days, there are a couple of known strategies to defeat the trap:
- By building up enough speed, the puck carrier can blast past all of the flat-footed defenders.
- The puck carrier can carry the puck wide, "springing" the trap, then use a drop pass to give the puck to a teammate in open space
- Posting up a player on the far side of the ice and launching a slap pass for them to tip into the zone. This way, the puck can be dumped in before the defenders have a chance to recover, making it a fair race for the puck
Left Wing Lock
Nine out of ten people in the world are right hand dominant. Canada has historically sent more hockey players to the NHL than any other country. In Canada, right-hand dominant people are encouraged to play hockey with their right hand on top of the stick, becoming a left-hand shot. A left-hand shot has an easier time controlling the puck on the left side of the ice, as they can naturally open up to see the rink, play the puck on their forehand, and dig the puck off the boards with their forehand.
This was the logic that created the left wing lock. The puck was angled towards the left side of the ice, the breakout team's right side. With left-handed defensemen, the breakout would be hamstrung, since the defensemen would be on their backhand. The left winger was "locked" into position, somewhere in-between where a forward would go and where a defenseman would go, adding a man advantage to the positional advantage. The center and right wing would fluidly forecheck, constantly attacking the puck to funnel it towards the left-wing boards, where the left winger would scoop it up or lay a hit.
In the age of the trap, where defensemen had been bred for power and grit instead of their ability to use the puck, the left wing lock was devastating. Teams would get hemmed into their zone for extended periods of time, wasting their star forwards' shifts and exhausting already lumbering defensemen into even slower versions of themselves. It left such a lasting impact that many modern coaches still insist on having a left handed defenseman and a right handed defenseman on the ice at all times, even in the age of skill training and defensemen who can make a backhand pass
Assignments were as follows:
F1: Attack the puck, forcing it to the left wing is possible. After a pass at the puck, retreat and become F2
F2: Wait near the goal. Once F1 retreated, F2 would attack the puck, forcing the puck to the left wing once again
LW: Hold the "locked" position, ready to pinch down on the puck or pick up any chipped pucks.
D1: Defend the middle of the blue line
D2: Defend the right side of the blue line
Once the rule changes were implemented to kill the trap, the kind of defenseman who thrived in the trap became a specialist, useful on the penalty kill or as a support partner for an offensive defenseman, but not the kind of player your team needs six of. No matter what that guy at the sports bar says. With more skilled defensemen coming into the sport, "make him go to his backhand" became less of a viable strategy.
While the ideas underlying the left wing lock were smart, and it was an effective tactic in its time, I don't think that we will see the left wing lock in the NHL ever again. Luckily, new strategies have evolved from it, and we are going to talk about those next time.
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