Sold to

paudet@cablevision.qc.ca
--

Hockey

Tactics 2020:

Bonus

Chapter

Why Connor McDavid & Leon Draisaitl score

but the Edmonton Oilers struggle

Jack Han & JFresh

/
--

McDavid & Draisaitl Are Terrible

(At Defense) – by JFresh

Over the past three seasons, two players have set

themselves apart as the NHL’s best offensive players:
Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.

Let’s set aside the highlight-reel plays and the

reputations and focus on the stats.

Since 2017-18, the pair of them rank:

1st and 2nd in total even strength offence Goals Above
Replacement
1st and 2nd in RAPM Goals For/60
1st and 14th in total Wins Above Replacement
1st and 5th in total 5v5 points
2nd and 36th in RAPM Expected Goals For/60
3rd and 9th in total 5v5 goals

The eye test, the points, and the analytics align:

Both players are indisputably elite and among the very

best in the NHL.

But.

/
--

McDavid and Draisaitl are horrible defensively.

Not just not very good. Not just “yeah, it’s not a strength of theirs for
sure.” They are two of the worst defensive players in the entire
league. Let’s try that whole “ranking” thing again but using defensive
stats this time.

Since 2017-18, out of 397 forwards who played over 1000 minutes
over those three seasons, the pair of them rank:

391st and 397th in RAPM Goals Against/60

397th and 380th in RAPM Expected Goals Against/60
387th and 397th in even strength Goals Against/60
396th and 386th in even strength Expected Goals Against/60
397th and 390th in even strength defence Goals Above Replacement
395th and 393rd in all situations defence Goals Above Replacement
370th and 395th in even strength relative Goals Against/60
388th and 373rd in even strength relative Expected Goals Against/60.

To visualize just how bad that is, here’s a percentile ranking

visualization:

/
--

The stats used previously comprise essentially every worthwhile

method of measuring overall defensive impact, including goals,
expected goals, raw numbers, numbers isolated from teammates
and competition, numbers relative to teammates, Goals Above
Replacement, etc. They all align.

The truth is resoundingly clear: the core object of defense is to

prevent the other team from scoring (or at the very least to prevent
them from getting quality chances against your goalie), and
McDavid and Draisaitl simply don’t do that.

Generally, I would pretty much call this case closed and hand things
off to Jack to figure out exactly what they do on the ice that leads to
these outcomes. But before I do that, months of Draisaitl-for-Hart
discussion has made me aware of many counterarguments to this
statement, which makes a deep dive worthwhile.

With one exception, the stats I’ll be using will be scaled over three
seasons (2017-18 until 2019-20). This is not cherry-picking to make
these players look worse, but rather to support the argument with a
larger sample. It is also, incidentally, more generous than just using
this year’s stats, because both players have actually gotten worse
defensively since 2017-18 (particularly Draisaitl).

Most stats that I use can be accessed for free on Natural Stat Trick or
Evolving Hockey with the exception of Goals Above Replacement
and RAPM numbers which are exclusive to EvolvingHockey’s Patreon
subscribers.

Let’s get going.

/
--

Argument #1: “But Look at Their Takeaway Numbers!”

Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl take away the puck a lot from their
opponents. Between 2017-18 and the present, McDavid ranked 3rd in
takeaways per 60, while Draisaitl ranked 29th.

That is certainly an asset to their team, as stealing the puck is one way to
prevent the other team from getting good scoring chances and can lead
to an effective counterattack.

However, it’s not constitutive of “good defense.” McDavid had 1.1

takeaways per game. Draisaitl had 0.8. So this is an event that happens
around once a game, in the 22 minutes a night that these players play.
Hypothetically, if a forward made one really good cross-ice saucer pass
per game but was otherwise completely disengaged, we would still call
him ineffective offensively.

Remember what I said above about the object of defense. Takeaways are
part of the job, but they are a very small portion of the whole story.
They’re also something that a skilled offensive player - even one who
does not otherwise give their full effort defensively - will try to do in order
to get back on offence, where they want to be. Finally, it’s also worth
mentioning that Draisaitl ranked 9th in giveaways per 60, and McDavid
was 29th.

/
--

Argument #2: “But Leon Draisaitl Plays on the Penalty

Kill!”

Leon Draisaitl does indeed play on the Oilers’ penalty kill - not
excessively, but he does. The Oilers’ penalty kill is also quite good,
ranking 2nd in the NHL in terms of PK%.

Ergo, it’s argued, Leon Draisaitl is good defensively - if he wasn’t,

Dave Tippett wouldn’t trust him on the penalty kill.

There are two things a player must do to be a good penalty killer.

First, they must play on the penalty kill. As established, Leon Draisaitl
plays on the penalty kill. So he’s halfway there! The second is to
actually be good at it. Draisaitl is less good at this part; in fact, he’s
terrible at this part.

Of all 168 forwards to play over 50 minutes shorthanded in 2019-20,

Leon Draisaitl ranked last in shorthanded Goals Above Replacement
per 60. He also finished second-last in shorthanded xGA/60, better
only than Frans Nielsen of the Detroit Red Wings.

Why didn’t his ineptitude become clear to Oilers fans and coaches?
Because he benefitted from insane goaltending - his 95% on-ice
penalty kill save percentage was 2nd highest in the league. But, you
say, I thought the Oilers penalty kill was great? Well, the other Oilers
penalty killers don’t have Draisaitl’s problems:

(See next page)

/
--

I didn’t forget to enter Draisaitl’s stats, he’s just 0th percentile!

(Literally the worst player in the league.)

“If he’s not a good penalty killer, why does Tippett trust him during 5
on 3s?” you say. Well, at 5 on 3 generally you would want a player out
there with a long stick who can skate well, and Draisaitl fits that
description.

Sadly, we don’t have player stats for 5 on 3, but even if we

hypothetically say that Draisaitl is good at it, that doesn’t mean that
he’s a good defensive player, especially if his main problem is effort
rather than talent - it’s a lot harder to play lazy when you’re the only
forward out there.

/
--

Argument #3: “But When They Want to, They Play

Amazing Defense!”

This is a fun rebuttal, because it essentially argues that McDavid and

Draisaitl should be given credit for the fact that hypothetically they
could be better defensively if they actually tried.

But a huge portion of defensive play is consistent effort, so the fact

that they do not “want to” play even mediocre defense is a
condemnation, not a credit.

On top of that, remember that since 2015-16, the Oilers have finished
27th, 23rd, 28th, 24th, and 22nd defensively at 5v5 - they are not a
team that is so strong defensively that they can afford to have their
two most-played forwards completely neglect their own zone.
So I’m not convinced by this point, even if it is the case. But let’s fact-
check it anyway.

If McDavid and Draisaitl deliver defensively when things really

matter, then in high-stakes situations their play should improve. For
example, how do they stack up compared to that same set of 397
players from earlier when their team is protecting a lead?

/
--

Up by 1:

243rd and 200th in GA/60

279th and 207th in CA/60
316th and 217th in xGA/60
321st and 201st in xGA/60 relative

The good news here is that it appears as though when the Oilers are
up by a goal, Draisaitl does indeed improve from terrible to merely
bad. McDavid, on the other hand, is the absolute last guy you want
out there defending a lead.

What about the highest stakes time of all: the playoffs?

Well, unfortunately the Oilers have only played two playoff series
with McDavid and Draisaitl, a small sample size. But since that’s the
only real record we have of their defensive play when the chips are
really down (and it’s the same sample that some use as evidence of
their hidden proficiency), let’s check it out anyway.

/
--

94 forwards played 100 even strength minutes in the 2017 playoffs.

How did #97 and #29 stack up defensively?

68th and 35th in GA/60

93rd and 84th in CA/60,
90th and 92nd in xGA/60
61st and 24th in relative GA/60
84th and 67th in relative CA/60
83rd and 82nd in relative xGA/60

Once again, not well at all.

Both players (especially Draisaitl) were fine in terms of goals against,

but the shot attempt and expected goal numbers reveal that Cam
Talbot, and not either of them, was the reason for it.

If these two can play excellent defense when it matters, they

evidently decided that the playoffs didn’t really matter.

/
--

Argument #4: “Who Cares? Their Job is to Score, Not to

Play Defense!”

A hockey player’s job is to play hockey.

The object of hockey is to outscore your opponents in order to win

the game. Hockey players do this by scoring goals and preventing
their opponents from scoring goals.

As a result, if you are responsible for your team giving up goals, it

lessens the positive impact that you are having on your team.

Because forwards are inherently more individually impactful on

offence than defense, a forward who is elite offensively will
outweigh their poor defensive play by a large margin. But that does
not mean that the poor defensive play disappears or is irrelevant.

No one is asking McDavid and Draisaitl to play Selke-level defense.

They do not need to suddenly become reincarnations of Pavel
Datsyuk. But it is bizarre to hear people argue that it does not
negatively affect a team - particularly a poor defensive team - to
have the two most played forwards in the NHL also be two of the
worst defensive players of their era.

I do not think that playing merely poor, rather than atrocious,

defense would have a disproportionately negative effect on their
offensive play. Connor McDavid is the fastest skater in the world;
would a few extra backchecks or more attentive positioning knock
10 points off his total? And if it would, and the only reason he’s
dominant offensively is his awful defense, then maybe he’s not the
game’s best player?

/
--

Summary

A recap: While both McDavid and Draisaitl are 95th percentile (top 5% in the NHL)
offensive contributors, they are among the worse players in the league at preventing
shots and chances against.

The Oilers are incredibly fortunate to have two players as talented

and as impactful as Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.

McDavid has lived up to his billing as a generational offensive

player, and Draisaitl has silenced those who thought he was merely
a product of his teammate.

But when a player is part of the “best in the league” conversation it is

not unfair to analyze their defensive game as well, and it is
abundantly clear that both of these players are not only terrible in
that regard, but two of the worst in the entire league.

The question is what they do (or don’t do) in their own end that leads
to those outcomes, and how it could be improved by coaching.
JFresh

/
--

McDavid & Draisaitl Can Be Better

(On Offense) - by Jack Han

On March 11, 2020, the Edmonton Oilers face the Jets on the final
night of play before the season’s interruption. Draisaitl takes the
opening faceoff. He is flanked by veteran Tyler Ennis, an above-
average fourth liner for the Maple Leafs in the previous season, and
Kailer Yamamoto, who is finally beginning to emerge as a scoring
threat after being yo-yoed from Bakersfield and back for the past
three years.

Draisaitl finds himself in the thick of the action in the opening

period, making himself available in the middle of the ice and giving
his wingers easy outs. But the German’s movement is labored. His
upper back is hunched and stiff, while his legs lack flexion. An
untrained eye would confuse him for Milan Lucic, the aging winger
coming off a six-goal season with the Oilers.

As often as Draisaitl is able to acquire the puck, precious little

offense materializes for his line in the opening period simply because
he is not able settle the puck on his first touch under pressure.

McDavid doesn’t have that problem. He, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and

Zack Kassian jump on the ice. On paper the line should be an
effective one. McDavid is the generational offensive threat. Nugent-
Hopkins’ hockey sense make him a worthy sidekick. Kassian’s
physicality complements his linemates’ skills. But in practice they
simply don’t connect.

/
--

At 18:48 Nugent-Hopkins makes a DZ stop at the left half-wall and

rims the puck softly to RD Ethan Bear, who dodges a check and sends
an indirect pass to Kassian, stationed at the right half-wall. McDavid,
as a center should, swings low to pick up speed.

Someone like Patrick Maroon, whose physical similarities to Kassian

belie superior hockey IQ, would have made a deft bump pass into the
middle of the ice. But instead Kassian shovels the puck north, forcing
McDavid to drift outside the dot lane. When the center gets first
touch, two Winnipeg forwards are sitting on him. The play turns the
other way and the Oilers have to regroup. McDavid, unimpressed,
cuts his shift short and skates to the bench.

As the minutes pass in the first period, we don’t see the Oilers
attempt to build offensive plays from deep in their territory. The
middle of the DZ is a no-fly zone when they are breaking out. In
transition, Edmonton stubbornly tries to carry play north into
Winnipeg’s 1-1-3 NZ forecheck instead of changing sides early and
forcing the Jets to recalibrate their defensive stance.

The Oilers superstars are playing haphazardly. Draisaitl stretches

himself thin and looks for short pass receptions all over the ice.
McDavid disengages and sniffs for offense on the perimeter, hoping
to use his otherworldly acceleration to turn a broken play into a
breakaway. No. 97, looking properly depressed, finishes the period
with a lowly eight puck touches. No. 29 end with 19 touches, an
excellent total if not for the fact that 10 of those pucks were
immediately turned over to Winnipeg.

How did it get this bad? To find answers we'll need to travel back in
time.

/
--

Rewind to September 11, 2016

We are the Bell Centre in Montreal. The mythical Team North

America, featuring McDavid, takes on Draisaitl’s Team Europe in a
pre-tournament game at the World Cup of Hockey.

Both teams are mis-mashed into existence to help the tournament

reach quorum, but would impact the collective conscience in
significant ways. North America’s undeniably skilled youth and their
snazzy jerseys make them immediate fan favorites. Europe’s
underrated mix of skill, experience and grit allows them to reach the
final against Team Canada.

But this 7-4 exhibition win teaches us some specific things about
McDavid and Draisaitl’s futures, how far the latter has come and
how far the former can still go.

*First Period*

18:45 – McDavid is flanked by Johnny Gaudreau of the Flames and

Jack Eichel of the Sabres. Both players have enough pace in their
game to keep up with No. 97, but also possess the requisite skill and
imagination to improvise at an elite level. Defenseman Shayne
Gostisbehere retrieves a hard rim in the right corner and bumps the
puck up to Eichel, who has two Europe players in his face. Eichel,
picked just after McDavid in the 2015 draft, "Jedi mind tricks" his
opponents, who run into each other at the half wall.

The puck squirts loose and the second overall pick wins another
battle, neutralizing the Team Europe backchecker with a quick stick
lift and bumping the puck back toward McDavid. Meanwhile
Gaudreau has pushed out of the defensive zone to act as a quick-up
threat.
/
--

On the 2020 Oilers McDavid would be the tip of the spear, trying to
make a breakout play under pressure on the wall or sprinting into
the neutral zone. But on Team North America alongside two other
gifted offensive stars, he allows himself to delay and form the second
offensive wave by developing middle speed underneath the play.

McDavid settles the puck on his backhand and immediately returns

possession to Eichel for a middle entry into Europe’s zone.

Closely guarded by Mikkel Boedker, Eichel tries to evade and loses an

edge. But he hooks a pass to Gaudreau on the far side before going
down. Reflexively Gaudreau rims the puck past defenseman Andrej
Sekera. It goes down to McDavid, who has skated past the far post
and is cutting against the grain behind the net while the gigantic
Zdeno Chara inadvisably chases.

Both Team Europe defensemen are beat and Boedker inexcusably

skates by Eichel in front of the net. McDavid makes another flawless
gather on his backhand and slides the puck to Eichel, whose one-
timer is saved in extremis by Thomas Greiss.

Team North America completes six passes in just nine seconds to go

from DZ to OZ to scoring chance.

Chara jumps on the rebound and prepares a counter-attack, but

McDavid chases him down with minimal effort. The defenseman,
pressed for time, passes to Boedker on the left wall, but McDavid
completes his track and steals the puck without hesitation. He plays
the puck back to Gostisbehere before returning to the bench.

A job well done on both sides of the puck.

/
--

15:41 – Draisaitl takes a shift alongside two fleet wingers: Marian

Gaborik and Nino Niederreiter. The gangly Lucas Sbisa pinches at the
red line, leaving Draisaitl to make a DZ retrieval.

Draisaitl’s sub-par movement is evidenced by him having to round

the net with his back to the play rather than making a sharp turn up-
ice on first touch. This gives McDavid time to sprint off the bench and
immerse himself into the play as F1.

At the last moment Draisaitl sees his NHL linemate and gets rid of
the puck in a panic toward Mark Streit at the left half-wall. Streit is
immediately victimized by Eichel, who cycles low and beats Sbisa to
the net for a scoring chance.

The rebound winds up on Niederreiter’s stick and he plays it up to

Gaborik, but McDavid is once again all over his man on the
backtrack. The exasperated winger punts the puck into the neutral
zone for North America’s Aaron Ekblad to recover.

Ekblad fakes out Niederreiter and send the puck cross-ice to Morgan
Rielly, who plays it up the wall to Gaudreau, anchored at the far blue
line. But Draisaitl’s hockey sense gets him there on time. He cuts
Gaudreau off, puts the diminutive winger on his back, then rounds
the net for the second time.

On this occasion he spots Roman Josi in the middle of the ice and
serves him with a tape-to-tape pass. Josi, the one-man transition
machine, takes the puck all the way to the Team NA's net, then grabs
his own rebound.

/
--

12:31 – Team North America leads 3-0 with the game not even eight
minutes old.

Ralph Krueger, perhaps ruing his decision to accept Team Europe’s

head coaching job, takes his timeout. He is rewarded with having to
match up against McDavid’s line on the ensuing faceoff. He sends
out Tomas Tatar, Anze Kopitar and Mats Zucarello. The first a sneaky-
good scorer, the latter two among the best defensive forwards in the
NHL.

Zucarello chips the puck into the zone; Colton Parayko is back to
retrieve. He senses Kopitar on the strong side. He shoulder-checks to
confirm, then rims the puck hard around past Tatar, the other
element of Europe’s aggressive 2-1-2 forecheck. It hits the skate of
the pinching Team Europe D and rolls slowly toward the blue line.

As Parayko makes his play, McDavid again develops speed

underneath. His textbook route takes him down to the near post and
back up toward the puck as it rims around.

By the time the lucky bounce occurs McDavid is already in fifth gear.
He rips across the neutral zone against the aging Dennis Seidenberg,
who does well just to not fall down.

Now in full flight, #97 puts the puck on his backhand and cuts in on
Greiss, who saves a low shot. Barely breaking stride McDavid grabs
his own rebound and cycles to Gaudreau, who eventually combines
with Eichel for another attempt on Greiss.

/
--

10:05 – Draisaitl’s subpar skating technique isn’t a problem, until it is.

Upright and rigid, he gets shifted by Gostisbehere in the neutral
zone.

Seconds later he jumps in to assist Chara in the corner and comes

out with the puck, but is then unable to escape from a stifling Nate
MacKinnon.

The Team Europe center clumsily throws the puck into Chara feet.
The giant kicks the puck to his stick blade and plays it up the wall for
an exit.

8:25 – Team North America now leads 4-1 on eight shots and
Jaroslav Halak has replaced the hapless Greiss in goal for Team
Europe.

McDavid shows no signs of letting up and forechecks with abandon.

He finds himself in a virtuous cycle: The harder he works defensively,
the better his offensive timing. Or is it the other way around?

As the fourth man back into his zone, McDavid takes advantage of
an impatient Marian Hossa diving down on a 50/50 puck. He lifts the
forward’s stick, takes four long strides with the puck and flies across
the offensive blue line with Gaudreau sprinting the far side.

Late in his shift, he doesn’t think to extend the possession with a

cutback, instead he meekly throws the puck from a bad angle into
Halak’s glove for a whistle, while Gaudreau is boxed out by Mark
Streit.

/
--

7:28 – To paraphrase Forrest Gump, a bad skater is what a bad

skater does. And Draisaitl might just be a fine skater after all.

Playing as the low support forward in DZ coverage, he sprints the

middle of the ice as Niederreiter accepts an up-ice feed from the left
defenseman, then changes sides to Gaborik on his first touch.

Morgan Rielly, the left defenseman for Team North America, bites
and pivots to address Gaborik.

Bad move.

On cue Draisaitl jumps through the gap between him and his
partner Aaron Ekblad and is rewarded with a breakaway pass.

Ekblad recovers and forces Draisaitl to go to his backhand and to

stick an arm out to shield the puck. John Gibson goes down early to
take away the bottom half of the net.

Draisaitl gets surprisingly good pop on his one-handed backhand

shot, but it is almost impossible to lift the puck with such a shot
while moving.

Gibson makes his best save of the night so far.

/
--

4:40 –McDavid isn’t much of a stop-and-start skater in his own zone,

unlike Sidney Crosby, to whom he had been compared since his
teens. In this regard he is much more like Evgeni Malkin, who prefers
to stay in motion in DZ coverage, alert for any counter-attack
opportunity.

Team Europe cycles in the North American end while McDavid drifts
and circles. He picks up Boedker walking into the slot and does just
enough to tie up a potential scoring opportunity, then sprints the
center of the rink.

Once again Eichel makes a great slip pass from the right half-wall
and once again McDavid’s low starting position catalyses his
transition play.

McDavid commands both defensemen’s attention with a middle

entry, then kicks out to Gaudreau, who delays on the left flank. He
narrowly misses connecting with Eichel at the front of the net. The
puck goes into the corner.

Roman Josi couldn’t win a fair race against McDavid. So Josi cheats
by leaving the net-front early and beats the center to the loose puck.
He plays it up to Gaborik, who in turns finds Draisaitl on a slant
route.

Upon reception Draisaitl takes three sizeable crossovers. His upper-

body oscillates wildly and he almost loses the puck, but recovers in
time to create a middle entry.

He kicks out to Niederreiter on the right flank. The winger cuts to the
middle and snaps a dangerous shot on net. Gibson makes a
confident save.

/
--

2:03 – Team North American regroups in their own end. Pavel

Datsyuk or Patrick Kane would be swinging back toward his Ds,
looking to build speed underneath and challenge opposing
forecheckers with pace and possession in the “engine room” of the
rink.

Instead McDavid is cherry-picking at the far blue line, hoping to get a

long pass, then beat his man from a standstill.

Which is exactly what happens.

Ryan Murray zips the puck 70 feet squarely onto his tape. McDavid is
quick out of the blocks against Frans Nielsen, then drops the puck to
Gaudreau, who attacks the slot. Team North America overwhelms
the defense like a swarm of locusts but none of their three quick
incursions into the danger zone result in a shot.

Nevertheless McDavid’s offensive timing enables a strong defensive

effort yet again. He covers for Gostisbehere at the point then forces
Hossa to commit a turnover, which leads to a Gaudreau scoring
chance.

What we learned:
As a dominant junior McDavid developed a taste for big transition plays and out-racing
defenders 1v1. Against World Cup competition he is more effective playing behind the
first layer of attack and developing speed underneath in order to create offensive
sequences with his linemates. Paradoxically the more frequent and intricate the
offensive sequences, the better his defensive impact becomes.
Draisaitl’s strength and hockey sense allow him to make high-end plays, but his lack of
fluidity prevents him from escaping pressure and separating himself, causing him to
play more often in DZ coverage rather than sustaining offensive pressure up-ice.

/
--

*Second Period*

19:05 – McDavid needs only two strides to leave a hustling

Zuccarello in the dust and gets first touch on Eichel’s chip-in. He then
saucers a perfect backhand pass over Seidenberg’s stick and onto
Gaudreau’s at the back post for a scoring chance. In what is now a
familiar pattern, the Gaudreau-McDavid-Eichel line completely
controls plays and leave the ice 40 seconds later with play deep in
the Team Europe zone and their opponents exasperated.

16:44 – Draisaitl’s night is not going well. Team Europe manages

some offensive-zone time but their players’ spacing is all wrong.
Chara pinches down all the way to the left corner to keep the play
alive for Niederreiter, but the forward immediately turns it over. No.
29 hasn’t touched the puck in half a period and now has to
backcheck 200 feet to try and defend. Vincent Trochek snaps a low
shot that Halak deflects out of play. Krueger pull’s Draisaitl’s line off
the ice and replaces it with Kopitar’s.

15:27 – Eichel’s breakout pass to McDavid is off the mark and

Zuccarello combines with Gaborik to set up a chance for Pierre-
Edouard Bellemare. The OZ sequence continues for Team Europe
and McDavid becomes increasingly confused as the puck changes
sides to Josi, who looks to carry below the goal line.

At the lasts moment the offensive defenseman zips the puck cross-
ice again to a wide-open Gaborik in the high slot. McDavid means
well when trying to box Bellemare out on the edge of the crease. He
shoves the Frenchman out of the way but trips his goalie. Flat on his
chest, Gibson can only watch as Gaborik shoots the puck into the
open net.

/
--

12:37 – It is only the second pre-tournament game, yet it seems as if

the 20-year-old Draisaitl has already played his way into his coach’s
doghouse.

Krueger replaces Draisaitl with Kopitar for a FOGO (face-off, get off)
shift. Kopitar wins the draw and dutifully returns to the bench.

Draisaitl jumps on, dumps the puck in and keeps the cycle alive. For
a moment McDavid is tasked with covering him and struggles to
prevent Draisaitl from bullying his way to the front of the net.

They eventually witness a rare sight: Sbisa weaving through traffic

to wrist a slot shot into Gibson’s chest. At long last Draisaitl has a
productive shift, but he does not see the ice the rest of the game.

What we learned:
McDavid’s propensity for fly-bys in the defensive zone is bound to infuriate his coaches
at times. However we can safely conclude that his ability to turn a nothing play into a
grade-A chance at the other end more than makes up for his defensive miscues.
After a promising but uneven start, Draisaitl’s night comes to an end just past the half-
way point of the game. His coach decides that chasing a three-goal deficit in the
meaningless prelude to a meaningless tournament is more important than giving
game reps to a future 50-goal scorer. Krueger cultivates a progressive, renaissance-
man image. But on this night he handles a young player in the most conservative way
possible.

/
--

Summary

I accept JFresh’s premise that McDavid and Draisaitl’s defensive

outputs are atrocious. I also concede that learning to box opponents
out in the DZ and to track effectively through the NZ can improve the
quality of their defensive play. But what if focusing on No. 97 and No.
29’s play without the puck is entirely off-base?
Being paired with two dynamic offensive creators in Eichel and
Gaudreau forces McDavid to start every play low and slow. He is in a
position to build speed underneath to threaten the middle of the ice
in every transition play, rather than cheating for breakaway passes
that rarely connect.
Building offensive sequences leads to OZ pressure, which makes
McDavid’s job on the backcheck that much easier when his rivals are
gasping for air. Physically overwhelmed, they would like nothing
more than to give the puck back to McDavid’s team and get off the ice
to avoid the ensuing massacre.

The real problem for McDavid is his

offense.

If he were better at playing underneath in

transition and controlling the middle of the
ice, he wouldn’t need to defend nearly as
much.

/
--

Summary (continued)

Between 2016 and 2020 Draisaitl’s identity has hardly changed.

He makes a ton of plays, but he also makes a ton of unnecessary
turnovers.
His instincts in all three zones are sublime. But once he receives the
puck, he is unable to change speed or direction to beat a defender.
At six-foot-two, 207 pounds, Draisaitl should not settle for just being
a big, slow guy who happens to be really skilled and smart.
As a matter of fact improving his skating posture and his puck
placement can influence his speed and quickness in very tangible
ways.
With the puck Draisaitl is deadly in the offensive zone, where he can
shoot it on net or make a quick play without needing to move his
feet.
But on the breakout and in transition he is prone to the type of
mistakes that end up back in his own net in a hurry.

The real problem for Draisaitl is also his

offense.

If he made higher-quality plays with the

puck and didn’t turn it over so often, he
wouldn’t need to defend nearly as much.

- Jack Han
/
--

Book A

Consultation
Would you or a player you know benefit from video
& statistical analysis tailored to identifying
strengths, weaknesses & long-term development
opportunities?
Send Jack Han a Direct Message via Twitter for a
free 30-minute consultation.

@JHanHKY