Next Day Review: CBJ vs FLA 4/11
Another one of those games, but at least David Jiricek and Nick Blankenburg got regular shifts this time.
The Stats
The Blue Jackets, after last game, were officially locked into the 4th worst draft lottery odds. This game, they played a bit like they knew it.
It has been a quite catastrophic end to the season which, from a pure long-term perspective, was probably the best case scenario.
The Florida Panthers are once again a showcase of just how far the Blue Jackets have to go in order to become a competitive team. They are in a different stratosphere in terms of neutral zone efficiency even if their priority has little to do with puck carrying. I won’t get too much into it here but safe to say this game felt exactly like everyone should have expected.
As far as matchups go, we once again saw Texier-Sillinger-Marchenko take the oppositions top line. It’s another away game, so technically Paul Maurice would have had final say on matchups, but I believe it’s still reasonable to assume Vincent was playing a part.
The best performing matchups, in terms of shot share, were Texier-Sillinger-Marchenko and Werenski-Severson, and Blankenburg-Jiricek with Pyythia-Kuraly-Danforth (who was switched later in the game).
No matchups were easy and Florida is a deep and multifaceted team. That being said, it’s the second time we’ve seen our more aggressive neutral zone defensemen work when in matchup situations. Werenski has improved but mostly Severson is dictating outcomes in the neutral zone. Puck movement, and clean possession, are just as much factors on defense (perhaps moreso as we’re learning) as blocking shots.
My eyes said that Blankenburg-Jiricek struggled more than in their previous games. There have been turnovers in every game, especially as Jiricek continues to take risks en-route to learning the NHL, but Blankenburg wasn’t able to perform quite as cleanly and missed a couple of checks. Still, they got better results across the board than some of the other pairs.
Quality of competition, of course, but let’s not discount the very skilled third line of Luostarinen-Lundell-Rodrigues. They aren’t loud but they play the Florida system very well and have tremendous off-wall passing in high leverage situations.
Provorov-Gudbranson got the unfortunate job of trying to contain Matthew Tkachuk, who is the pinnacle of power forward play in the NHL. Not that he’s a more difficult matchup than Barkov-Reinhart, but he’s his own unicorn. The Blue Jackets struggled in those minutes.
The chance chart tells the same story. CBJ’s best player was Nick Blankenburg, saved from some unfortunate Jiricek breakdowns by being off-ice. Then, Kirill Marchenko, Cole Sillinger, Alex Texier and Sean Kuraly. For me, checks out.
The reason I display this chart is moreso to point out how grouped Florida’s players are. This isn’t always the case but rarely have I seen tight forward groupings from the Blue Jackets. I am not confident enough to say that the Blue Jackets have a line-change problem but there’s definitely something amiss.
There are plenty of legitimate reasons to have more spread results. Line blendering, icings, injuries and even tactical different deployments. Still, Florida’s command of the game and therefore tight grouping perhaps serve as a point of further study.
The Tape
Neutral Zone Re-Entry
Neutral Zone Re-entry is the “playoff style” rush offense. Florida’s ability to get the puck deep, forecheck hard and, following an uncontrolled exit or chip-clear, attack with possession afterwards was on full display in this game.
This area of the game, the transition offense after the opposition fails to exit the zone with possession, is a key cog in an incredibly well aligned Florida possession/defensive scheme.
If you want to know more, read this.
This situation isn’t exactly a “re-entry” play but it does contain some of the same elements including quick organization in the neutral zone and supported possession entries. In any case, it’s transition that doesn’t come from a controlled exit or set breakout.
Here, Florida wins a defensive zone faceoff and ultimately gets the puck out. Aleksander Barkov’s control and patience in the middle of the ice are legendary. His reach perfectly complements his immaculate defensive positioning and though it doesn’t result in clean possession on his stick, it prevents Gaudreau from making a good play.
Now, the Blue Jackets are in a reentry scenario. Severson does a good job in splitting the Florida forecheckers but his pass is either a bit off or Voronkov isn’t reading the play in the same way.
Oliver Ekman-Larson, like Severson, quickly passes the puck through the forechecking layer and to a forward. This lightning quick passing link is critical and explains Severson’s aggressive passing decision.
From there, Barkov is patient and intelligent. He doesn’t spin and rim the puck, he takes his available space and enters the zone on-time. It allows Sam Reinhart an attempt to hustle and attack the strong side defender. His initial read, and route, were probably incorrect (he should have tried to shoot the gap between Severson and Werenski) but I’m sure he wouldn’t have guessed Barkov having such an easy time getting around Gaudreau.
Either way, Barkov has time, uses it, and tries a nifty move to put the puck on net. Werenski interrupts it with his stick, Gaudreau offers a meek little cross check and stick swing to say he contributed, and Barkov stays in motion.
He recovers the puck with eyes facing the middle and offers a quick pass to Sam Reinhart who is floating back to the dot.
Here’s his final shot location. He doesn’t shoot it hard but he doesn’t waste time and puts it in the right spot. It helps that Gaudreau has to worry about Tarasenko’s stick and then is otherwise pretty slow to read the play afterwards.
This re-entry attempt is from Florida’s 4th line and is a little less nefarious. Still, they keep the ice tilted. Florida challenges teams to get through their lethal and intelligent forecheck and already has the counterpunch prepared in their re-entry game.
You have to beat Florida’s forecheck cleanly or they’re coming right back at you. The best teams take a risk and send a fleet-footed winger into the neutral zone early to win a 1v1 battle against a back tracking defensemen. LA found some success with Quintin Byfield and Toronto with William Nylander.
The Blue Jackets’ top-line found some success in thwarting the Florida neutral zone re-entry.
First, there are some offensive details that explain some of this top-lines struggles. The players just aren’t always reading off of each other and moving around the zone well. Marchenko secures the faceoff and moves around the net.
Sillinger and Texier move little during his possession and are both stacked in the same area far away from any potential play. Perhaps Marchenko needs to give the puck to a defenseman at the point but Sillinger and Texier need to move earlier and give Florida something to worry about.
Barkov gets the puck deep and Florida goes for a line-change, to get Tkachuk’s line into this matchup in an offensive situation.
Somehow, Florida completes a line change and gets into this forechecking pressure before the Blue Jackets can organize a breakout. Gudbranson chips it into the neutral zone and Florida is into re-entry.
Montour recovers the puck and quickly moves it up to Sam Bennett.
Ivan Provorov does an excellent job re-gapping quickly to force Bennett to make a move at the blueline. Marchenko finishes the job by backchecking and clamping onto Bennett’s stick. They have no way to take advantage of Tkachuk with time and space at the blueline.
Provorov chips the puck around Florida’s forecheck pressure to Kirill Marchenko who has to do a risky dangle to get around Niko Mikkola’s intense approach pressure.
He does, and then he gets a loose puck pass over to Cole Sillinger across the middle lane.
From here, Marchenko needs to do a better job on his route to the net. Perhaps the credit needs to go to Mikkola, who did an excellent job pushing Marchenko to the short-side.
Either way, Marchenko could feign a move between and then attack the backside of the net where Sillinger’s forehand pass would meet Marchenko’s right handed forehand for a good tip or redirection on net. It didn’t happen and Mikkola boxes out Marchenko so that Bennett has an easy time retrieving the puck.
From there, Tkachuk skates across the top of the zone toward Nick Cousins so they can attack in support at the blueline for an entry.
Tkachuk exploits the gap and dual threat on Ivan Provorov to enter at an angle and start attacking Damon Severson. He lofts a pass to space across the zone and the Panthers get a rush opportunity on net.
In any of these cases, Marchenko and Provorov stopping the re-entry, Marchenko and Sillinger’s disconnected plays or Tkachuck and Cousin’s connected entry, teamwork made the dream work.
Luostarinen and Rodrigues
This shift captures the two domains of excellence for Eetu Luostarinen and Evan Rodrigues. They are tremendous bargains for this excellent team because of these skills.
Eetu Luostarinnn is an all-around fantastic forechecker. Legitimately one of the most disruptive in the league according to AllThreeZones metrics and HockeyViz’ transition time metrics.
In any case, he’s also excellent at helping get the puck out of the Florida zone. Here, David Jiricek pinches down the wall but Luostarinen expertly diffuses that pressure with a clean puck pickup that seamlessly transitions into a cross-lane exit pass. He does this all off of his backhand.
Anton Lundell receives the pass and moves it to Rodrigues who enters the zone with his head up. Then, we get to see Rodrigues’ specialty. He pulls up, enters a threatening posture and then delivers a saucer pass through/underneath Nick Blankenburg at an excellent pace and position for Lundell on the middle drive.
Rodrigues is excellent at these passes to space and excellent at getting them through defensive layers from his off-wing wall. Unlike many Blue Jackets, he doesn’t have to completely anchor his feet into order to puck handle into the pass.
Luostarinen is first touch on the rebound and Rodrigues stays in motion for the recovery and continued offense.