Pressure’s on

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This article was published 17/10/2015 (3620 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The strategy of an NHL game has evolved dramatically since the lockout that cancelled the 2004-05 season.

Pinching the blue-line and pressuring in the offensive zone used to be a choice — most teams did it when the odds and circumstances were in their favour, or in a desperate, late bid to rally when down on the scoreboard.

Now the teams that don’t do it at all times during a game are in a dwindling minority, and it’s been evident in the first five games of the Winnipeg Jets’ season.

It’s pressure and more pressure all over the ice. Even the Jets, out to their 4-1 start, are doing it.

“We’ve embraced that early on,” Jets coach Paul Maurice said Saturday, when asked what the long-term transformation has been in this area. “We would be accused of over-pinching, not under-pinching. If you’re looking at our game, we don’t sit back in the way that we play.

“We’ve gotten very aggressive because we can. Look at Dustin (Byfuglien’s) goal last night. That’s a pinch at (our) blue-line. He stands up in the neutral zone. He did that on the very first goal of the season, pinches up in the neutral zone then drops it to (Mark) Scheifele and it’s in.

“So we have the men back there that can do that. We’re built to do that.”

It’s probably one of the biggest changes the Jets have implemented under Maurice.

They used to be accused regularly of backing in timidly on goalie Ondrej Pavelec. Not so much anymore.

“There’s an emphasis on being able to skate now, a lot more than there used to be,” said Jets right-winger Blake Wheeler. “That said, (if) you allow guys time and space, you’re going to get eaten alive.

“I think that was a reason why we struggled at times. Our forwards weren’t good enough at getting back. And our D had to give a big gap because (the other team) always had numbers coming up the ice.”

While the Jets have only “embraced” this recently, the beginning of this trend is easy to spot, Maurice said.

“In 2006, the game took a major change,” he said. “They had the lockout, Carolina wins the Cup and it’s kind of all kinds of offence and interference penalties.

“But it did change, to seeing a more offensive mindset to the game. Because you can’t clutch and grab down low, players have more (room) to move. Even backchecking, they don’t get caught down low. The grind has come out of the game a little bit.”

Speed and the breed of NHL defenceman has ushered in the transformation.

“Look at the mix of blue-lines,” Maurice said. “You’d have maybe one offensive guy and four defencemen that were solely there to grind, big, heavy, plodding off-the-glass-and-out guys. There are just fewer and fewer of those guys on the back end.

“The kids coming now can skate, join the rush. It used to be one guy, one Phil Housley type on half the teams and then it was pretty basic.

“Now defencemen come and they can skate and join the rush so they’re part of your five-man attack.”

Left-winger Mathieu Perreault, in his seventh NHL season, said he still sees more of this pressure in the NHL’s west than east.

“It’s more of an aggressive game than in the east, where it’s more sitting back at times,” he said. “I remember my time in Washington, that it was more of a passive game and the D weren’t pinching as much. I think it’s more of a west thing, D very aggressive on the wall. But definitely a change in the last couple of years.”

So wingers are under the gun even more, especially trying to get the puck successfully out of their zone while under the gun of opposing pinching defencemen and forwards.

“To me, you have to be quicker but I’ve also noticed I have to come lower,” Perreault said. “As I see the D going D-to-D, I’m almost going all the way down to the goal line now to get the puck. It makes their D make a decision; does he go all the way down? And if they do… I’ve been working a lot on the high flip. Ever since the D are pinching so much, I’ve been using that a lot.”

Jets veteran right-winger Chris Thorburn agreed quickness, more than ever, is a factor in light of this strategy.

“It makes us make decisions quicker,” Thorburn said. “The speed’s that much more increased now. It goes with the fact that everyone can skate, no matter how big you are. And the structures that teams put in place, it allows your D to step up with forwards covering.

“A lot of teams are going to this because of the speed factor. I think that’s one of the main reasons that everyone coming into the league can skate.”

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca