Aggressive Defensemen will Define the Blue Jackets' Season
I’m still working through getting descriptions, diagrams and film clips of the Dean Evason’s Blue Jackets Systems and Tactics for the 2024-25 season. As the title suggests, active and aggressive defensemen are a crucial feature across nearly every system, structure or tactic.
Largely, active defensemen, and the interchange with forwards, serve to create an aligned and cohesive system that serves the purpose of maintaining pressure on the opposition. I believe that the Florida Panther’s rode this concept, in addition to plenty other good attributes, to immense playoff success. Many of the systems and structures at the very least rhyme with what Evason ran with in Minnesota.
TL;DR
The Blue Jackets will have their defensemen play up-ice aggressively. As a result, their play will be very connected as a five man unit. This aligns very well with their personnel. Still, there will likely be growing pains as they adjust from a more conservative system. Backchecking effort and F3 play may define how quickly the Blue Jackets adjust.
Before we go any further, let’s rewind and revisit the words of Dean Evason himself after being asked about some of Werenski’s play in a recent pre-season game against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
We’ve actually shown a couple of clips of last game or last two games where our d is involved in the offensive zone and they got out of there thinking that they have to get back and then we lose possession and its an easy exit for them.
It’s the forwards, or whoevers, responsibility to back your teammate up. You see three people in front of you then you just stay up at the top.
This concept, some might say positional interchangeabillity, speaks to Evason’s belief that the player in the best position should be the one that does the job. Really, it’s a matter of efficiency on the margins.
If a player is the closest to the puck then they are the right player to continue the attack otherwise we’re asking to exchange that time and space for predetermined positions and the skill specificity that comes with them. The Florida Panthers utilize a similar possession/pressure oriented system and that explains why a player like Niko Mikkola can be observed leading rushes and forechecking despite what his tools and frame might otherwise suggest.
I think this is important, especially in regards to the play of young defenseman David Jiříček. Jiříček activated into the play, as defensemen did, but Pascal remarked how he had to yell at Jiříček to get back. I’ve spent plenty of time scouring old post-game interviews searching for the clip but haven’t found it.
What I learned in breaking down Florida was it was the spatial distance priority, rather than positional-assignment priority, that allowed the Florida Panthers to mitigate specific skating weaknesses of a few of their defensemen.
Before I get too far here, Jiříček had, and has, plenty to work on as a player and the Blue Jackets do not have the forward personnel to be otherwise overtly compared to the Florida Panthers. Don’t get the wrong ideas. Still, Vincent’s conservative defensive systems combined with asking young defensemen to both pinch and get back created tension that made performance continuity difficult.
Under Evason, there will be no such confusion and, if his response to Werenski’s net-front play is any evidence, he actively disdains it. Largely, this should mean only good things for the Blue Jackets and is much more aligned with the nature of the players already within the organization.
Post-final pre-season drubbing from the Pittsburgh Penguins, Evason was asked if the St. Louis performance was the blueprint for the Blue Jackets going forward. He answered succintly.
If you’d like to look at what exactly a well aligned system and high percentile performance looks like, hit the link above to get all of the Mateychuk-Jiříček pair’s best plays and a breakdown of the aggressive principles that drove their play. Now, again, just a preseason performance and not one that we should expect to be repeated considering how well everything went. Still, Mateychuk and Jiricek weren’t the only players performing very well. I’ll use plenty of film from that game throughout this article so that we can get a look at some of the systems in action.
Before I dwell too long in the past, let’s start looking at some things we’re already seeing from the Blue Jackets, what it means for the team and where they might be at risk after adopting this strategy.
Aggressive Defensemen in Action
Weakside Going North
First, here’s one of Werenski’s shifts that inspired the question. Werenski leads the forecheck as F1 and recovers the puck then stays around the net and continues playing there for an extended sequence in the offensive zone.
Really, there’s plenty to talk about here in regards to aggressive play from defenseman. On breakouts, weakside defenseman are always active in Evason’s system. The goal, generally, is the be even on exit.
Werenski is generally matched in depth with Sean Monahan. You might think this is a vulnerable position, but there is generally a body to match each Penguins body and Werenski can’t be reasonably expected to have a play on PIT18 on the far side of the ice. Thus, get up and into the open space.
Marchenko is slow and doesn’t utilize Monahan so the pass doesn’t connect and the Blue Jackets are into a forecheck. Since Werenski has speed and is in the best position, he joins the forecheck as F1, recovers the puck and plays in the offensive zone as part of the primary offensive triangle.
Here, Gudbranson rims the puck to the weakside, Malatesta bumps the puck off the wall and Provorov gathers the puck as he’s already moving up and through the middle of the ice. They get to play in possession, showing off one of the entry principle, and the rush offense ends in a shot.
Notice how Provorov was matching the depth of Gavin Brindley who was the middle-ice support option for the breakout.
This clip shows the Blue Jackets playing more directly up the wall with the defensemen as the last back and working to get the puck off the wall in the neutral zone rather than their own half-wall. The forward spatial support, from Olivier and Malatesta, isn’t quite as clean and Kuraly doesn’t find the pass to middle speed well either.
Jake Christiansen activating through the middle as the weakside defenseman puts him in an excellent position to get access to the loose puck. The interesting part here is that this motion would have put him in an excellent position to contest possession in the case of St Louis regaining control of the puck.
If Christiansen had stayed in a more conservative and prepared position at the blue line, the Blues could have gained possession and started organizing an attack. Instead, the puck is in the zone. Notice on the return play how despite no control of the puck and Gavin Brindley missing on his aggressive defensive read, the Blue Jackets still had a match on bodies.
In this clip, Mateychuk pretty much does it all and maintains the motion/position despite delays with wall battles. He rims the puck around the forecheck, goes even on exit through the middle with Kirill Marchenko, carries the puck and scores a goal off the rush.
Down Wall Activation in Possession
The Blue Jackets are constantly looking to get their defensemen moving down the weakside in anticipation of change-of-sides but also in exchanges with forwards down the strong side.
Here, Mateychuk moves to fill open ice and receives an excellent pass from Jordan Harris. He ultimately doesn’t get the shot away but this downhill motion is something the Blue Jackets utilized consistently in the preseason.
Here, we get two different flavors of the same motion from Jordan Harris and Jake Christiansen. Harris gathers a loose puck, moves down the wall and puts a tight-angle shot on net. He may have missed a backdoor tap in passing opportunity but the Blue Jackets get to play on and he stays in motion.
Gambrell recovers the puck in the corner, moves up the wall and hands off the puck in an exchange with Jake Christiansen who takes advantage of the Blues’ inefficient defensive coverage switching and hits Sean Kuraly with a cross-seam pass. Notice Kuraly’s consistent position at the weakside dot as the exchange is made.
From here, Christiansen continues play in the primary triangle behind the net until Jordan Harris puts a point shot on net for a stoppage.
Really, this single clip shows nearly every single aggressive defenseman move in offensive zone possession.
Pinching for Possession
Pinching is a sort of bridge between both possession and forechecking in the offensive zone. On loose pucks, or changes of possession, the Blue Jackets defensemen are looking to take away the walls. Preventing pucks up the wall is their responsibility.
This, perhaps, isn’t the best example of creating offense post-pinch but it may serve to show it’s brutal effectiveness. David Jiříček pinches down the wall to recover a post-shot loose puck and pretty much just gets it deep without making a play. He frees himself up along the wall and stays in the play without ceding ice. He doesn’t handle the puck cleanly and his resulting pass is off-target but the Blue Jackets maintain possession and win an offensive zone faceoff.
Here, Mateychuk activates down the wall to seal a St. Louis forward from stopping the puck on a rim from Adam Fantilli. He creates space for the puck to drop to Yegor Chinakhov, who is required under the system to cover for a pinching defenseman, and then joins the attack after the point shot is put first on net but then into the corner. Mateychuk joins the primary triangle, similar to Christiansen in a previous clip, and moves to support the puck behind the net as it changes sides.
For fun, and because I will never tire of him, here’s another clip of Mateychuk pinching to contest ambiguous possession and mucking around in the corners.
Pinching as Forecheck
In many cases, possession is not ambiguous. Still, Evason requires his defensmen to own the walls. It’s sometimes hard to deliniate specific forechecks but really this is a part of a somewhat continiguous offensive and neutral zone forecheck.
Technically, the forecheck post-entry dump is likely considered a north facing offensive zone forecheck but I think it’s important to illustrate that the south facing (as in when the puck is moving toward your net) forecheck isn’t necessarily ice geography dependent.
South-Facing Strong Side Aggression
Essentially, the way it works, is that the Blue Jackets want their defensemen to aggressively play the walls and they want the F3 moving forward to cover behind them. In result, it creates a very similar posture across the ice regardless of where the defensemen chooses to play the wall whether that’s in the offensive zone or at their own blue line.
This aspect of the Blue Jackets structure has been difficult to capture on film partially because of broadcast camera placement but also because I think it’s still an area of significant adjustment and learning for the Blue Jackets.
The best I can do, at least right now, will be to show similarities in still images at the moment of attack though you’ll have to understand that the effectiveness and pure positions of players isn’t dialed in yet.
The first image is post-Jiříček pinch where Mateychuk has some separation and Mikael Pyythia is F3. Pyythia probably isn’t skating as hard as he could be but likely is reading an obvious loose puck as Mateychuk is also already skating forward with separation for the puck recovery.
The second is a Mateychuk disruption play at the blue line. Trey Fix Wolansky is F3 and he’s blasting back to cover Mateychuk’s play which is ultimately unsuccessful at stopping the puck because of an interesting wrinkle from the St. Louis Blues. You’ll notice that Jiříček is set deeper in the structure prepared to be first back to retrieve the puck.
Here’s another of Jiříček at the blue line with less that stellar effort from Pyythia in F3 and who I believe is Jack Johnson is the deepest retrieval layer.
Again, each of these situations isn’t a perfect illustration and I haven’t necessarily been detailed in the clipping of these circumstances. Defending proactively in the neutral zone will be a key focus for the Blue Jackets and may require adjustment time considering the difference in structure from the 2023-24 season.
Neutral Zone Gapping
The Blue Jackets defensemen will seek to establish tight neutral zone gaps across the ice sheet. Where this will be incredibly noticeable is how tight some of their defensemen are in defending the neutral zone on some of these changes in possession.
If the Blues did recover the puck in the above Christianside weak-side activation clip, his advanced positioning would be perhaps unusual in many systems. For the Blue Jackets, they’ll use it to their advantage none moreso than Denton Mateychuk.
I used this clip, along with others, in the breakdown of the Mateychuk-Jiříček so I won’t repeat myself.
The first thing this does is put Kyrou under pressure immediately. He doesn’t have a lot of time to organize play and do something special with the puck. Mateychuk’s positioning and pressure is unexpected because he previously fell back into the neutral zone and then regapped as the play proceeded.
The second thing it does is forces Kyrou to break his stride (while Mateychuk’s horizontal edgework still maintains some speed/recoverability for himself). Instead of being able to get into crossovers and build dangerous speed, Kyrou has to restart his acceleration. If you’ve seen the Pietrangelo mic’ed up against MacKinnon, you’ll know how dangerous allowing pacey players runway is.
The third thing, which is really a result of both the first two things, is that it allows David Jiricek a little extra time on retrieval to settle the puck and make the next play. He wheels around and splits the forwards through the middle to beat the first layer.
Denton Mateychuk is a relentless pressurer and contester of possession in the neutral zone. I won’t say they are the same caliber of player but this level of activity is highly reminiscent of Gustav Forlsing in 2023-2024.
Weaknesses and Considerations
While I believe this system to be a great fit for the strengths and weaknesses of the Blue Jackets roster, as well as aggressive play being more constructive for learning, that doesn’t mean there won’t be tradeoffs or pain points.
If the defensemen are consistently playing up-ice that means someone will have to cover for them. That seems straightforward but it means two things: 1. Forwards will be put in backward skating defensive positions more often 2. Forwards effort and backchecking output (F3 specifically) will be rigorously tested.
Marginal Efficiency Tradeoffs
The first point represents the marginal efficiency tradeoff that I mentioned in the beginning of this breakdown. While defensemen moving forward is a great way to constrict time and space and maintain pressure it will put forwards in positions that they didn’t grow up practicing. They will, in effect, be extremely weak rush defenders and have the potential to be exploited by opposition attackers who have their wits about them.
The Blue Jackets will be hoping that the benefits from pressure up-ice and curtailing speed early will outweigh the chances given up by relatively poor rush defense from forwards.
The Play of F3
In a similar vein, the Blue Jackets back check and reloading of forwards will be significantly tested. In my view, the Blue Jackets’ backcheck of 2023-2024 was severely lacking across the roster. Even the veteran and “defensively responsible” forwards didn’t close diligently, force their checks into suboptimal puck carrying postures and didn’t assist their defensemen in getting stops. It’s entirely possible that it comes down to the Blue Jackets more passive entry defending schemes.
In 2024-25, the F3, or first forward back, will be challenged to provide cover for defensemen habitually. For those that don’t anticipate properly, their skating output will have to make up the gap. Until these habits and structures are ironed out, the Blue Jackets will bleed partial or complete breakways on entries. It might look like the defensemen are being reckless but pay special attention to the coverage and insulation of F3.
As long as numbers are even, the play of the defenseman was likely warranted. If, post-pinch, the defenseman is beat by their player back into the play they have made a mistake.
I believe this clip illustrates the importance of dedication to backchecking but also demonstrates the potential weakness in having forwards cover for defensemen. Zach Werenski pinches and plays up in the primary triangle and Kent Johnson covers for him at the blue line.
When Washington recovers the puck and tries to exit the zone, Kent Johnson comes from the high ice and tries to kill the play. He misses on the aggressive stab and is easily beat around by the Washington forward. Johnson tried to create a clean stick-on-puck turnover but in doing so failed to significantly impede motion.
A minor note is that James van Riemsdyk waits at the net front to create offense in the event of Johnson’s successful takeaway but, habitually, he needs to be tracking back. There are plenty of times to take risks and you will often see opposing forwards occupy this position but it is not something you would catch a Florida Panthers forward doing regularly.
Still, Johnson slows down the forward enough to allow Zach Werenski, who is incredibly committed and effortful, to even the odds closer to entry. He doesn’t allow immediate east-west movement and forces the Capitals forward to drop the puck back. Despite the momentary 3v2 advantage the Blue Jackets aren’t threatened by the uncovered weakside forward.
Kent Johnson, similarly committed and effortful, closes just in time and gets stick on puck to disrupt the play. Great timing but this sort of skating will be necessary on nearly for all F3s and pinching defensemen (though the roles were somewhat reversed in this clip). Throughout the preseason, it hasn’t always been there.
If the Blue Jackets cannot maintain this effort over a full season or through full games, they will have to learn to properly anticipate these turnovers or become incredibly good at making sure they don’t turn over pucks in vulnerable situations.
Situational Vulnerability
The Blue Jackets want to be aggressive and Dean Evason has professed to accept mistakes if they are made through aggression. That sounds well and good but it does introduce certain tactical vulnerabilities. Turnovers, blocked shots or pinches where pucks aren’t controlled will introduce highly vulnerable situations that are difficult for tight and connected formations to defend.
None moreso than dangerous turnovers on exits.
On Exits
In the above clip, Cole Sillinger mishandles an exit puck and completely whiffs on a clear attempt. David Jiříček stays aggressive and goes to close down time and space. Unfortunately, he doesn’t close quickly enough and the Blue Jackets formation, having moved up-ice in anticipation of the exit, gets exploited in its inability to change directions and provide cover for the closest-player-pressures decision of David Jiříček.
As a result, Jake Christiansen is left on an island. Does this mean aggression is bad and Jiříček should have sagged in the lane? I don’t think so. Jiříček’s change-of-direction skating is quite poor so I think forward was the best option.
Really, I think he should have sensed the urgency and closed more quickly knowing that a stall out on the wall was a good outcome. The fault of the play comes from Cole Sillinger’s mishandling of the puck. A catastrophic exit failure of this magnitude looks bad but it’s in all likelihood a rare occurence, a simple mistake, and not one worth changing style of play for.
The Blue Jackets may always be vulnerable to these types of turnovers as they tend to have their total unit move upward in a way that is exposed if the opposition gains clean possession at the blue line. On exit, pucks must get out or quick strikes behind the defense will always be daggers.
Really, that same principle applies elsewhere. Closed, tight and connected formations are weak when you can skip them entirely. What they have in solidity they sacrifice in flexibility. The Edmonton Oilers used long, defense skipping passes and loose pucks to crack the Florida Panthers and exploit their up-ice aggression.
Keep an eye on the Blue Jackets getting burned by loose pucks chipped behind their formation (where hard skating, good 1v1 battle winning forwards are particularly dangerous) and stretch passes on their heels. Remember, though, that the solution won’t be to sit back but to make sure the team is limiting situations where the opposition has time and space to make these plays in the first place. If the pressure isn’t applied quickly, everything after will happen too quickly and easily to properly evaluate.
On Pinches
One of the keys to Blue Jackets success in this system will be wall play from the defensemen especially on pinches. One of the reasons that Mateychuk and Jiříček had so much success against the St. Louis Blues was because of their capacity to control the puck along the wall. This is both a compliment to the defensemen and a condemnation of the opposition.
Really, the most crucial part of limiting danger against will be in keeping the wall slow and quiet. If a defenseman pinches and the puck bounces of their stick or skate to the middle, the Blue Jackets won’t have time to adjust their routes to the outcome of the pinch.
The pinch is fundamentally about possession not necessarily a method from which to introduce danger. The worst thing that can happen is a defensemen puts their team in a worse position because they let a free puck slip to an opposition player without pressure. Exposing the middle for free is an outright no-go.
Though this article has featured plenty of David Jiříček, the intention wasn’t for it to be about him completely. Unfortunately (or fortunately), his and Denton Mateychuk’s exemplary performance against St. Louis means theres plenty of good tape featuring their games. Still, his capacity to keep pucks in his possession along the wall and get pucks to teammates in a better position was a crucial feature of their success and perhaps an area of growth for the young defenseman.
Wrap Up
Every system has tactical tradeoffs and the Blue Jackets’ upcoming systems under Dean Evason will be no different. Their active system should align extremely well with the skillsets of long-term veterans Zach Werenski and Damon Severson and recent high draft picks Denton Mateychuk and David Jiříček. We’ve already seen that it fits the rest of the roster like Ivan Provorov, Jake Christiansen and Jordan Harris as well.
This isn’t to say that the Blue Jackets are well positioned for immediate success. There might be significant growing pains as they dial in the pressure and more aggressive disruption schemes. Their forwards, especially young forwards with some puck watching tendencies like Cole Sillinger and Adam Fantilli, will be tested and challenged in ways that they haven’t been previously.
While rosters haven’t been fully settled, I wouldn’t necessarily be surprised for the Blue Jackets to start with the trio of Mateychuk-Jiříček-Brindley in the AHL. While I think their play is perfectly suited to this new style of play, Brindley’s workrate, pressure and backchecking disruption are already stronger than most of the roster, I don’t think it’s a bad idea for the NHL squad to have their systems stabilized (matured through the growing pains) before introducing these young players. Don’t be surprised, then, if when these three are integrated into the NHL the team sees a considerable jump in performance.
Patience is a virtue that Don Waddell seems extremely interested in expressing.
These systems and the confident mindset of their coach Dean Evason should set up the Blue Jackets well for a season of critical growth even if it doesn’t come with standings improvement. In any case, they should be playing a style that’s fun to watch even if it’s a little more unkind to goaltenders.