"Next Day" Review: CBJ vs NSH 4/13
A game that could have very much been “one of those games” if not for some surprising contributions from lower in the lineup players.
The Stats
A game that was much more back and forth, in terms of scoring chances, than many games of late have felt. Nashville putting 6 on the board quite consistently helps that. It’s hard to build danger when the pucks go in and Nashville had some clever tactics that exposed some of Columbus’ weaknesses.
As far as matchups go, there weren’t any hard-chased matchups on either side. It does look like Nyquist-O’Reilly-Forsber was primarily played against Gaudreau-Voronkov-Nylander but otherwise a pretty even distribution.
Zucker-Jankowski-Glass dragged the game into low-event territory and Beauvillier-Novak-Evangelista played high event hockey. The latter line was dominated by the Blue Jackets more skill oriented lines but did put a bunch of actual points on the board.
The Blue Jackets jumbled the “bottom six” lines a bit, at times exchanging Malatesta and Pyythia.
As far as defensemen go, Werenski-Severson were good across the board. Provorov and Gudbranson struggled and Blankenburg-Jiricek were good except against the excellent defensive/forecheck Nyquist-O’Reilly-Forsberg line.
All-in-all the chances rounded out quite evenly. I do believe Gaudreau-Nylander-Voronkov didn’t play as well as it looks but Gaudreau did find Voronkov, and Nylander at one point, for some very close to the net shots.
The Tape
Nashville Re-entry
Roman Josi ate the Blue Jackets alive with clever activation on neutral zone re-entry opportunities. They just were not ready for his clever inversions and the numerical advantages it created.
The first goal of the game was created by Josi inverted and Nashville attacking with three. Hard to say that Josi really “inverted” at this point, considering it was just straight across as a result of a poor chip-out.
It’s easy to criticize Malatesta’s perhaps poor read on Josi or in Provorov’s poor re-gapping but either way the Blue Jackets were outnumbered. The solution for the Blue Jackets was to either leave Josi alone or hope they could diffuse the 3v2.
Really, it’s perhaps read the situation a bit more quickly all around but Nasvhille has Josi doing this for exactly that reason. This is where the term “inverted” comes from, because Josi is now more advanced than all of his forwards. It’s a grey area and creates match up problems.
Malatesta and Provorov make the same read, which is a problem. Either their instincts or off or they didn’t communicate or both. In addition, they just aren’t aggressive enough.
Josi is a skilled passer and uses a pass to space to beat the incoming pressure. That’s really the beauty of a pass to space, you don’t need to gauge multiple variables. Put the pass at the appropriate weight and all you have to do is make sure you don’t hit a stick, leg or skate.
It works, and Gudbranson is in a 1v3. We’ll be nice to him here because that’s a difficult position but he doesn’t manage to take away everything. Luke Evangelista is a pretty deceptive playmaker and Tommy Novak is pretty fluid and elusive himself.
In order to analyze how to avoid this type of goal, we should probably go back to where it started. First things, Blue Jackets are at the end of a shift and they don’t get the puck deep.
Gudbranson picks up the loose puck and doesn’t even pretend to make a play just desperately get the puck out. We’ve seen the end result it just ends up in the strong side defenseman’s glove and slightly exits the zone which is somehow worse for the Blue Jackets.
In order to avoid this, it’s possible that Malatesta can activate to get in the gap a little earlier and call for the puck. A miscue there, though, and we have Josi alone on the weak side. Perhaps Trey Fix-Wolansky needs to read Gudbranson’s intentions a little better, something that would come with time or experience, and get up early to start pressuring the chip out.
Secondly, the most egregious mistake is Trey Fix-Wolansky and Justin Danforth trying to squeeze and exit in an obviously vulnerable situation.
If the Blue Jackets were more familiar with this type of offense, perhaps their forwards would recognize the danger. They must have simply assumed Nashville would retreat and allow a change.
This situation isn’t from a zone clear but rather from a neutral zone entry kill by Nashville. Josi is on the opposite flank as the recovery and he darts down the wing and subverts the pressure of Pyythia and Olivier.
Tommy Novak keeps his feet moving and that helps create a dangerous crosslane. He manages his route to receive the pass and enters the zone ahead of his forwards. After, he moves across the zone east-west post-entry and drops the puck to Evangelista and offers a shooting option.
No goal, but Nashville has quickly attacked after a neutral zone turnover and now have another faceoff in the offensive zone.
Nashville Entry Tactics
I’ve been talking all year about rush entry tactics but here’s an example of Tommy Novak and Luke Evengelista executing them with aplomb.
Novak makes a winding rush, using a partial pick to get separation from Kirill Marchenko. He enters the zone coming at an angle from the wall to the dots. He’s attacking between the Blue Jackets neutral zone forecheck setup and making it difficult for either the forward or defender to take his wing who’s at the blue line.
He moves and threatens to improve the conditions for the next play. Luke Evangelista opens up his body, reads the play, then faces the boards to protect the puck and diffuse pressure.
His handling trick does the job as Cole Sillinger overcommits to a dump, potentially because there is indeed a threat moving in that direction, and Evangelista now has time to pull up and find a dangerous pass. I’d like Cole Sillinger to not bite on that fake. A fake rim isn’t really a high leverage move and not something that should warrant exposing more dangerous areas of the ice.
That being said, hockey is an extremely fast game and unless you have the presence of mind and awareness to stifle instant body response to opposition body language, you’re going to be making these kinds of mistakes. It’s not easy, but its what separates average defenders from great ones.
Texier is simply puck watching. From the time he glides into the zone to the time this pass is made, he doesn’t head check once. As such, the pass goes through him to an open Roman Josi.
From here, Josi improves his shot location and enters an incredibly threatening posture. Jiricek and Blankenburg are mashed up in the middle taking away passing threats and Josi has the poise and presence to make the next play. He dekes Jet Greaves and scored far side backhand.
Throughout this rush, Novak, Evangelista and Josi have all prioritized deception over pace as they systematically break down the Blue Jackets neutral zone rush defense and expose some of the straightforward thinking habits of the Blue Jackets.
Cleveland Monsters Entry Tactics
Here, we get some of the same view, actually. Trey Fix-Wolansky pounces on the loose puck and starts the rush up-ice. Justin Danforth moves in advance and builds middle speed. They are hard attacking the back skating forward, Luke Evangelista, to create a 2v1.
I genuinely cannot tell how much of this pass was truly planned by Trey Fix-Wolansky, but it got the job done. The Blue Jackets winger truly utilized the middle speed that their center was providing.
Was it luck that got the pass through? Or was it earned because they were attacking a back-skating forward?
A soft pass behind his heels would have been more preferred but at this stage of the season I’m not going to argue.
Danforth picks up the pass and TFW has first priority to move to the middle as well. It’s not perfectly clean, which means Danforth has to do more work to maintain his speed but he accomplishes it with a deft touch.
Perhaps a little luck return pass but as we’ve said, these percentages are at least partially earned by attacking the right people.
We can see the same sort of move from James Malatesta and Justin Danforth on the 4th goal as well.
Malatesta delays slightly at the blue-line, passes underneath the strong side defenders stick and moves to the middle.
Danforth doesn’t have a play so he cuts back, though it’s more like a pull up than a hard skating maneuver, which gives him an opportunity to see across the ice. This is remarkably similar to Evangelista’s position on the cross-seam and the result is similar as well. This time, Trey Fix-Wolansky receives the pass and finishes with a great shot top corner.
Finding ways to utilize the middle forward are going to be crucial in the Blue Jackets evolving as an offensive club.
Cole Sillinger
Sillinger was attacking with urgency and pace tonight. He’s starting to figure out some motion after entries and using his quick handling and physicality to get more pucks out of the zone with control.
He makes a nifty handling move to get the puck out of the zone and has several more touches with positive impact. He hasn’t totally found the movement that will create constant problems for the defense, but few on the Blue Jackets have.
Here, Sillinger uses his stature and handling along the boards to secure possession and work with Werenski to attack the breakout. His middle route is quite good but Texier makes a perplexing decision that undermines the rush effort.
Still, the Blue Jackets chip the puck in and Sillinger is hard on the puck and puts it on net. He’s making big plays on either end of the rink.
He could still use some nuance in his rush routes but for now he’s making appropriate strides and starting to solve some of the problems that come after entering the zone with control. This east-west maneuver is critical for attacking the middle ice off the rush.
James Malatesta
Malatesta had an excellent game. His entry passing was great but so too was his inside driven mindset. Even if he doesn’t create offense or read the play completely correctly, his habits still take him to the interior of the ice.
This clip is particularly impressive. He comes with speed through middle to secure the entry, attacks it again after possession and then wins the race to the back wall and leverages position quite well.
Here, he drives the middle with speed. If Olivier had dumped the puck before he slowed up, that could have been a clean recovery. Instead, he uses his body and leverage to disrupt Schenn’s retrieval.
The Blue Jackets don’t come up with the puck but it’s his tracking through the middle and intensity on sticks that wins back possession for the Blue Jackets.
Here, his backchecking effort and middle lane drive are rewarded with a defensive zone takeaway.
Whether he can grow defensively enough to make up for his stature, or whether the Blue Jackets can stomach continuing to add undersized wings (Gaudreau, Danforth, Brindley, Dumais, Malatesta and Whitelaw are all in the system at varying levels along with Blankenburg, Boqvist and Mateychuk), may be the defining factor in his Blue Jacket career.