David Jiricek and Denton Mateychuk Dominated the St Louis Blues, Here's How

First things first, it’s just the pre-season and it’s just the St. Louis Blues. As much as we love to fantasize about beating “full NHL” preseason rosters the reality is that the urgency and execution just aren’t quite there especially from veterans who aren’t worried about making the team.

Still, Mateychuk and Jiricek put on an absolute show last night and it was something I felt merited some extra viewing.

First we’ll do our homework first and look at the numbers. These two were in a tier alone in their execution. As much as I am not a huge fan of overall xG charts for single games, being in the absolute top corner mean’s you’re all but guaranteed to have been playing well.

Before we get too carried away with expected goal counts, it’s important to understand that this D pair dominated every matchup they played against.

The first two columns are nearly all red and there aren’t any hints of hiding them from “top competition.” It’s certainly a good thing that they could put on this kind of performance against players like Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou but veterans aren’t likely to be fully dialed in at this point of the season.

In the 14 5v5 minutes that this pair played together on the ice (they were split at the end of the game for certain shifts), the Blue Jackets conceded 4 CA (4 total shot attempts, whether blocked or missed the net) and put up 25 CF for a 84.21 CF%. Those are unreasonable numbers.

Without further ago, let’s hit the tape.

I’m putting everything here together because I think it’s importance to experience the totality of their performance. As much as I’d love to point out a thing or two that displays their dominance, it was really a very cohesive effort across multiple domains and throughout shifts.

What they showed, at least in part, was the core thesis of Dean Evason defending and playstyle. These weren’t solo efforts but very methodical, very specific and worked in concert with their primary forwards. The hallmarks of their performance were aggression all over the ice but particularly in pinching down walls in the offensive zone, gapping up early in the neutral zone (pinching in the offensive zone being another part) and through swift diffusal of pressure through their use of eachother.

Aggressive Pinching and Offensive Zone Activation

Both David Jiricek and Denton Mateychuk eagerly pinched down walls to maintain offensive zone possession. Their capacity to consistently hold possession in zone reminded me of the early Werenski and Jones days. St. Louis simply didn’t have an answer for that sustained possession.

Though I wouldn’t define pinching as an inherently offensive act, both did hold onto pucks to diffuse pressure and were able to generate offensive outcomes post-pinch. It’s early, but it looks like wall exchanges and weakside defensive activation, especially into cross-slot passing, are going to be hallmarks of defensemen under Dean Evason.

I won’t go further into Denton Mateychuk but his capacity to take ice and offer easy outlet options for his teammates is a near work of art. He plays eagerly down into the corners of the offensive zone but is so effective, purposeful and intelligent in this movement that it doesn’t even feel like a risk. While he is positionally aggressive, and that can be considered risky, he does so in a way that increases the possessional security of his team. It’s awesome.

The primary purpose of pinching, and for mentioning it here, is that it serves a purpose in terms of play driving. Aggressive pinches are defensive acts that promote possession and territory rather than conceding it under the guise of being defensive. Having the puck in the offensive zone is the furthest from getting scored on that your team can be. The Florida Panthers integrated pinching with their forecheck and their Stanley Cup should perhaps be the all the proof that is needed in the concept (though Edmonton did find some tactics to expose its potential weakpoints.)

Under Dean Evason, pinching is systemic. We can then evaluate these two by their post-pinch outcomes. Rarely did either player get trapped along the wall while Blues players streamed by. Really, they were quite clever in how they kept moving and gained possession.

Aggressive and Early Neutral Zone Gapping

Another presumed hallmark of Dean Evason’s defensemen, and one that really ties the playstyle together, is extremely early and aggressive gapping in the neutral zone. Pascal Vincent’s defensemen pinched but they eagerly sagged off to set up a conservative neutral zone forecheck, especially on line changes and regroups.

Denton Mateychuk contesting possession and quick ups from St Louis from off-screen was ever present.

In the above shift we seen Mateychuk’s pinch and his sending the puck deep. The better part though is how he meets Jordan Kyrou in the neutral zone.

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.

That’s also not to say that Jiricek wasn’t also moving up aggressively to contest possession in the neutral zone, pretty much all Evason defensemen are, but Mateychuk is different about it.

Poise under Pressure and Living Another Day

Both Mateychuk and Jiricek capped off their excellent possession disruption performance by being near perfect puck retreivers.

Where last year Jiricek was a complete maverick who never saw a middle player he didn’t want to hit on the breakout, in this game he was incredibly effective and restrained. Jiricek would pick up pucks and when he didn’t have a play, he would eat a hit and keep control along the wall. I think this aspect was perhaps the most important for the young defense pair. Even when retrievals didn’t go well there weren’t back breaking turnovers in the middle of the ice.

Jiricek’s wall play was outstanding and he frequently generated positive outcomes in diffusing pressure with small and quick passes to teammates with more time and space (this was noticeable along the offensive zone walls as well). Rarely did an opposition player come away easily from the wall with the puck while Jiricek was trapped. It needs more attention but it’s possible that he’s doing an excellent job using his frame to maintain puck control in an interesting way.

Both players were safe but effective on retrievals and neither tried to solve the pressure on their own. They frequently drew pressure and passed it to the teammate who was under less pressure across the ice whether on loose-puck neutral zone retrievals into regroups or on dumped pucks into their own zone. This meant clean breakouts on reverses but also meant forwards were incorporated and the other defenseman would start up-ice. (And also perhaps paints Jiricek’s usual partner, Ivan Provorov, in stark relief.)

Where I was most impressed, perhaps, was in both Mateychuk and Jiricek’s capacity to quickly and cleanly clear pucks from the zone. They didn’t hold onto pucks to try to create something extra, or architect a transition attack, they just put loose pucks behind the first or second layer of pressure and gave their team a chance to fight another day.

Mateychuk punts a loose puck into the neutral zone and forces and extended retrieval with the puck’s beautiful weight. Then, he stays moving and intercepts a puck in the neutral zone and makes sure it gets all the way deep.

Here, Jiricek draws the forecheck to him and cleanly beats it to Mathieu Olivier. Mateychuk dashes up ice and makes a play to get the puck into the zone. While Mateychuk can’t fully execute on the loose puck, Jiricek meets the play at the blue line and gets the puck deep.

What made that playstyle worthwhile was that they followed those pucks and “locked in” a territorial advantage by contesting play eagerly in the neutral zone. In each case, they got the puck out and then resumed their positional aggression in a way that forced pucks deep.

Some NHL teams die because they diffuse the first attack with a zone clear only to be hit with a potentially more dangerous second wave. In their motion up ice, Jiricek and Mateychuk made sure that their loose pucks were ultimately cashed in on resulting possessions.

At the end of the day, the total battle level of the defense pair, whether on inconclusive retrievals or zone clears, meant that even when their first attempt didn’t result in a “win” they kept battling and kept St. Louis out of dangerous and established possession in their own zone.

TL;DR

David Jiricek and Denton Mateychuk put on a clinic in modern play driving from the defense position. Their innate chemisty and shared gameview along with the encouragement to be positionally aggressive created a bulwark that a preaseason Blues team simply could not crack.