Part of the New York Rangers’ struggles last season was the impractical use of man to man defense. Now, the team is transitioning to a zone system.
Every coach has a different approach as far as their preferred scheme. The bench boss can either tailor his system to the personnel at his disposal or try to force a round peg into a square hole. Last season, the New York Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault tried to force the players into a scheme that did not suit their skillset.
New York had 12 different defenseman dress last season. The combination of the injury bug, underperforming expectations and trade deadline moves made the unit a patchwork effort. By the end of the season, the unit was littered with fringe NHL players and unproven prospects.
For the final 20 games of the season, the group was comprised of Brady Skjei, Marc Staal, Neal Pionk, Rob O’Gara, Ryan Sproul and John Gilmour. Of these six defenseman, only Skjei and Pionk were suited for a man coverage system. The man system requires the ability to skate at a high level to keep up with their assigned player.
This created a situation in which the team would be out of position on a consistent basis and players would get lost in the coverage.
The problem
The problem for the Rangers came in when the team applied the overload concept. By design the team was supposed to move both defenseman to the puck carrier’s side of the ice.
Look at the mistakes made on the different Bruins’ goals. Riley Nash scores a tap in on an empty net for two different reasons. First, Brendan Smith is trailing behind the play and out of position leaving only four Rangers in the defensive zone. Second, Tony DeAngelo is in no man’s land not covering a man down near the net mouth.
Man to man coverage only works when the defenders are engaged in the coverage and staying with the play. Far too often last season the Rangers were on another planet and did not look like a hockey team.
On the second Bruin goal, defenseman Zdeno Chara gets down into the high slot and rips a slap shot through traffic. There are two preventable causes of this goal. The Rangers failed to get a clean zone exit because defenseman Steve Kampfer got the puck taken away from him in the corner. Then Skjei failed to clear the traffic from out in front of the net.
For as good of a player as Skjei is, he has a bad habit of being soft in front of his own goal. If the Minnesota alumni can do a better job in front of his net, there would be no weaknesses in his game.
Switch to zone
Aside from the concept of each player being assigned to a segment of the ice, zone requires a different style of play from those on the ice. In overload man, each player is supposed to stay with someone else on the opposite team and then float over to the puck carrier to close them down and gain possession.
In zone, there is more of an emphasis on spacing and cutting down angles. It’s not exactly zone in the same vain as in football or basketball but it is similar. The defense will still pressure the players on offense, they’ll just sag slightly off.
The idea being an increased fluidity in defense that should enable a smoother transition to offense. That has been a David Quinn point of emphasis since training camp started. Quinn wants the players to make the other team uncomfortable through their relentless play.
The reason this should work better than man for the Rangers is the skillset of the team’s defensemen. Skjei, Shattenkirk and DeAngelo skate well and would be fine in man, but this should help the team’s slower defenseman.
In zone, Staal and McQuaid will only be responsible for spaces on the ice and not tracking down faster players the entirety of the zone.
There is obviously work to do. The team’s last two preseason games have been sloppy in the defensive zone and surrendered a combined 11 goals. As the team makes roster cuts they will get closer to the final group for opening day. Hopefully by Wednesday, the team will have an idea of which seven defenseman will be on the roster come October 4.