Anaheim Ducks: What Can Dallas Eakins Learn From the Past?

The Long Pass

As a result of being on the receiving end of a sweep from the San Jose Sharks, the Ducks overreacted and pushed a playing style upon the team that they didn’t have the cattle to execute. The Sharks during their sweep were often seen making a long pass through the neutral zone to open ice in front of the high forward but behind the Ducks rear-guard. This pass to space allowed the Sharks forward to get in behind the Ducks defencemen, by utilizing two key points against them.

First, it is easier to skate fast without the puck. Even in sports such as soccer, it is difficult to ball handle while attempting to execute a maximum speed sprint. However, running onto a loose ball means that the attacking player already has been able to accelerate to a maximum pace and make few ball handling decisions once they reach the ball itself.

In this case, the Sharks forward could accelerate rapidly and once receiving the puck simply maintain their speed rather than needing to place more effort into acceleration. The second point is that the Ducks defenseman was required to either skate backward or turn around, to intercept the pass or player. Both of these movements are far slower than skating forwards.

Taken together, the Sharks forwards acceleration and the Ducks defenseman reduced speed, separating between the forward and defenseman can be established. This separation provides time with the forward to work with, and time allows for more options to be considered or utilized. Each further option is likely to create further space or room to work with.

Due to the freedom of puck movement, this stratagem appeared to be playing “fast.” Recognizing, and verbally communicating to the media, that the Sharks were not a team of fast skaters, Bob Murray directed the Anaheim Ducks under Randy Carlyle to implement a similar system of play. In itself, directing a team to play a faster style is not problematic. Ryan Stimson has the following to say in his book Tape to Space: Redefining Modern Hockey Tactic:

"“Say a team attempts thirty shots and yields 20, resulting in controlling 60% of the shots. Now say that team plays a faster game and attempts 48 shots and yields 32, resulting in them controlling 60% of the shots. What has changed?”"

The obvious answer is that the team controlling 60% of the shots has increased the shot differential from 10 to 16. We know that statistically speaking that a goalie on any night will have an average save percentage of x. Thus increasing the total number of shots is likely to increase the number of goals scored, should all other variables remain the same. A clear rationale for teams who control the play, to increase the pace of their games rather than slow them down.

Nevertheless, the inverse is also true. Should the team controlling 40% of the game’s shots increase the pace of the game, then they are likely to be outshot by more and thus be scored on more. The Ducks, of course, were one of those teams which were regularly outshot. In their case, pushing the tempo rather than slowing it down resulted in them being outshot by historic levels. At least in the early season.

It’s also worth noting that following Randy Carlyle’s departure from the team, the Ducks reverted to a system that was much closure to what Carlyle has implemented in the 2 seasons prior. That is to say a more reasonably paced game. They pushed the pace when it suited them, but for much of the time, it was far slower than it had been at the seasons start. While the return to health and match fitness of a number of the Anaheim Ducks better players was undoubtedly the underpinning cause of the improvement, the slower-paced game plan also helped to improve the overall shot metrics.

Lessons to Be Learned

While the long pass play could be considered an abject failure for the Ducks last season, it’s usage does present a number of learning curves for Coach Eakin’s should he wish to view them.

Firstly, passing into open space should be a high priority for the coach. It seems like it doesn’t need mentioning, yet how often have the Ducks (with the man advantage) pass the puck around to a player who is more or less standing still?

Ryan Getzlaf back to Cam Fowler the point, Fowler across the blue line, back to Fowler or down into the corner. Rinse, wash, and repeat. In sports like soccer or field hockey, it is typical for the attacking team to attempt to increase the depth and width of the field, whereas the defensive team looks to make it more narrow and shallow.

Creating space, creates time, and giving skilled players time to work with the puck allows them to find and create further options. Eventually, gaps will open and scoring opportunities will arise. The concept works as well at even strength.

Secondly, don’t force the players into a system. Create a new system based on the strengths of the players you have. Last season’s Ducks didn’t really have the capability to play a fast-paced game for 60 minutes. Whether that was due to injury, match fitness, conditioning, or simply player archetype is beyond the scope of this article.

Nonetheless, building game styles around your players seems to be the best idea. Taking that point further, this would suggest that each 5 man unit (3 forwards and 2 defensemen) would play in a slightly different manner. This would give a twofold effect of optimizing your player’s strengths, and to confuse the opposition which now has to adapt to the changing strategy.

Finally, do the unexpected. The league may currently be running with certain trends, and they may be the trends of winning teams. However, mimicry simply puts the Anaheim Ducks in step with other teams. They may be better than some or worse than others, but it provides no tactical advantage to copycat another teams game style. Be bold. Break the mold. Outside of the long pass, Carlyle’s team last season used the central corridor more than most teams.

This offensive zone entry point allows the fulcrum of the offensive “triangle” to have the most space to work with, as opposed to starting on a wing and having only one direction to go in (towards center ice). It’s hard to say whether this worked out, given that the Ducks as a team finished the season 50 goals below the league median. Trial and error.

Don’t be afraid of failure. If the data can support a reasoning to trial something, then try it. With that said, if another team is doing something that will work for your team, then steal it. Take it and run. Unashamedly. But don’t do it because it works for them, do it because it works for your players.