Examining the Avs D-zone breakdowns

The Colorado Avalanche are atrocious this season, there is no mincing words when discussing the tire fire currently occurring on Mile High. Going into Thursday night's games, the Avalanche were sitting dead last in score-adjusted possession by a whopping 4.1%. That is extremely hard to pull off and yet the Avalanche are committed to being a team that is consistently stuck in its own end and unable to take advantage of the incredible skill the team boasts. They are also 4-8-1 on the season and, realistically, if nothing changes in Colorado in the near future they will have a legitimate shot at being a lottery team.

But the Avalanche roster has absolutely no business being in the lottery discussion. As discussed heavily on Twitter tonight as they were getting brushed by the Arizona Coyotes, this is a team with a ton of the game's most exciting, dynamic, and youthful talent. Sure, management has done a fairly poor job the last few offseasons as Joe Sakic has proven to be out of his element so far in his young management career, but the pieces are still in place for the Avalanche to be a competent playoff team. Inspired by this tweet from Travis Yost , I am really interested in digging into what plagues the Avalanche so heavily in their quest to move the puck up the ice and sustain offensive pressure. Through examining Avalanche film from this season, we can hopefully identify what the fundamental problem is with the way the Avalanche play.

Let's get to it.

It's pretty clear that two things are largely responsible for the Avalanche inability to possess the puck and win hockey games: Patrick Roy's abysmal coaching preparation and the Avs lackluster defencemen. This combination means plenty of defensive breakdowns and overall, just a mess in the defensive zone. Once the puck is set up with control in the Avs end, there's a good chance teams will be able to maintain possession for awhile. Let's take a look at the Avs game against the Coyotes tonight to identify some of the breakdowns in defensive coverage.

In this frame we can see that the Avalanche should have this play under control. There are four Avs in the picture with relatively good positioning while the Coyotes have two in the frame and are not in a threatening stance. The Avalanche, I have noticed in examining their games, are entranced by the puck. The five defenders follow the puck relentlessly with their eyes but fail to take into account anything else happening around them. In the next picture, a mere four seconds later, my point about the Avs puck-watching is illustrated perfectly.

How, how does this happen? In a mere four seconds the Coyotes have managed to park two forwards in front of the net with only one Avalanche defender back to cover the both of them. Take note of the Avs player wearing #2, that is Nick Holden and he is a defenceman yet he is stuck at the top of the blueline completely out of position. The Avs player standing in no man's land is Jack Skille who should have taken note of the fact that there is a Coyote standing wide open in front of the net. This breakdown rests squarely on the shoulders of the coaching staff and their lack of preparation. The Avs run around their own end with no idea about role or responsibility and this is the result. A Coyote player setting up a drive-thru window in front of Semyon Varlamov. Fortunately for the Avs they didn't score on this play but it is only reminiscent of too many plays throughout any hockey game they participate in.

The Coyotes third goal in this game is really one of my personal favourite goals I have witnessed. It is pure ineptitude, in its finest form. If there were a goal to sum up the Avalanche the last two seasons, this would be it without a doubt. It alone warrants an entire post but I will try and summarize it as much as I can.

The Avs have just lost a defensive-zone draw and the Coyotes shot from the point is deflected wide. In this frame we can see that #16 Nikita Zadorov is retrieving the puck in the corner with plenty of time to take a look and move the puck so the Avs can begin their breakout. The Avs defender standing in front of the net, ideally, would be shifting behind Varlamov to provide an outlet for Zadorov as the Coyotes forechecker applies pressure. This would be a feature of a functioning NHL breakout. Not the Avs, however. Not the Avs.

Now based off of where the defender is in front of Varlamov, one would assume this is the same frame as the one directly above. It is not. For some reason Brandon Gormley does not provide Zadorov with the outlet option and the Coyotes forechecker is able to strip the unsuspecting Zadorov (who failed impressively in moving the puck but even if he did shuffle it behind the net, there would be no one there to accept it). The successful NHL teams provide plenty of support for defencemen so that they can have options for the transition game and they can make the shorter pass to a teammate instead of the desperate stretch pass. This is where effective coaching comes in and has players in position to provide support. Without effective coaching, players are left to fend for themselves as we see here. But hold on, we're not done.

Now, after about 15 seconds of defensive scrambling and shot attempts hurling towards the Avs netminder, the Coyotes retrieve a loose puck in the corner. Note the Avs defensive positioning here. Three defenders are lined up virtually on a straight line staring directly at the puck with no concept of zone coverage or filling in space. The Coyotes player should be immediately pressed and his passing options should be cut off immediately. Instead he has time to look around and as all five Avs players are staring at the puck and failing to adjust to passing lanes, he has plenty of options coming out of the corner.

As the Coyotes player shuffles up the boards with the puck he has the pointman, who is out of the frame, wide open because Skille is staring right at the puck serving essentially no purpose. If he had adjusted himself two feet towards the blueline he would have effectively cut off the pass back to the point and the Coyotes player would have no option but to cycle the puck back around. But Skille has no concept of where he needs to be and fails to make the small adjustment necessary to remove the pass to the point as an option.

This is where it goes from head-scratching to downright hilarious. After the Coyote on the blueline shoots the puck towards the net there is no one in the home plate area save for the Avs center #10 Ben Street. He is somehow beaten to the rebound by Steve Downie of the Coyotes (yes, that Steve Downie) and is forced to hook Downie to prevent him from getting a clean shot at the rebound. Comically, Street's failed attempt to obstruct Downie results in him falling directly into Varlamov's pads where the puck was lying. Street's momentum then pushes the puck backwards over the goal line to make the game 3-1 and it would inevitably serve as the game-winning goal. Inexcusable defensive play all-around by the Avalanche and this much scrambling and incoherence often ends with disastrous results. Wanna know what this is even funnier? Roy actually challenged this goal, claiming goaltender interference, despite it clearly being the Avs pathetic attempt at playing competent defence. The referees seemed to agree.

Now a totally fair argument here is that the two plays I have highlighted have been a result of the Avs bottom defensive pairings and bottom six forwards being victimized rather than poor coaching and preparation. But while they may be more exposed because of their lack of skill to compensate for poor coaching, the Avs star players and reliable defencemen often become victimized due to confusion over defensive coverage as well. Let's take a look at the San Jose Sharks game-breaking goal with 1:39 left in their 4-3 win over the Avalanche on November 1.

We see here that the Avs are once again well-positioned originally. The Sharks enter the zone with possession but Tyson Barrie has contained the winger from streaking past him towards the net. There are four Avs players in the frame here including Matt Duchene and young superstar Nate MacKinnon and only 2 Sharks players in on the attack. But, once again, the common theme is the Avs backcheckers becoming frozen on the puck-carrier and losing their surroundings.

Let's pause here. Patrick Marleau's move here completely fools Barrie and he is left trailing towards the red line. Meanwhile, Duchene and MacKinnon are still eyeing the puck but have collapsed to the hashmarks, failing to cut off the pass to any trailing Sharks and leaving the offensive zone with plenty of room to maneuver.

This is nothing if not damning. We've got three of the Avs best players (Barrie, Duchene and MacKinnon) once again lined up in a straight line with no knowledge of attacking Sharks and no spatial awareness. And once again, they are all staring directly at the puck failing to notice the incoming caveman, er, Sharks defender Brent Burns who is wide open with a clear passing lane to feed him with half of the Avs defensive zone exposed.

Burns receives the pass and doesn't end up getting the best positioning to shoot the puck but when he does he's got a Shark player standing unopposed in front of the net. The Avs defender, Holden, fails to make an effort to remove him from the front of the net and Burns shot squeaks through Varlamov. Not the best shot for your goalie to let in, but a shot that should have never been allowed in the first place. 3-2 Sharks and game, set, match.

Regardless of the players the Avs deploy, their defensive zone play is honestly inexcusable for an NHL hockey club and it is directly attributable to the failure of the Avs coaching staff to adequately prepare their team for defensive coverage and positioning. The Avs do not have the most mobile or smart defenders and that surely exacerbates the mess but that should inspire the coaches even more to prepare a gameplan that allows for short, touch passes that support a competent breakout and zone coverage that pressures the attacking team and cuts off passing lanes.

Compare Roy with a coach like Mike Babcock, for example. Babcock was commenting on the fact that the Detroit Red Wings had lost tons of defensive talent so they had to adjust their gameplan in the defensive zone. Babcock's reasoning can be seen here:

“We don’t move the puck as well, so it’s real simple,” Babcock said.

“When you’ve got Lidstrom, Rafalski, Stewie (Brad Stuart) and Kronner (Niklas Kronwall), they go back, they turn the corner and they fire it to someone who hasn’t had to work quite as hard to be quite as close, to be in the exact position.

“We can’t play like that anymore. We have to be closer and tighter and more available, and better defensively.

“Sometimes it’s not very pretty, but that’s just the way it is.”

This quote by Babcock is a succinct summary of what the Avalanche need to be able to do effectively and on a consistent basis. From what we have seen so far under Coach Roy, that is something they are woefully inept at doing. It really is a shame because the Avalanche have the potential to be one of the league's most terrifying and electric teams (similar to the Stars) but coaching has been severely lacking and is a prime example of the horrendous negative consequences subpar coaching can have on a team in the modern game.