The terms ‘hard skill’ and ‘playing heavy’ are oft-used as compliments for a hockey player.
While your mind likely goes to players who body check often and work toward separating a player’s head from their body, this is not always effective physical play that leads to playing winning hockey.
Recently, I sat down with Louis Boulet to discuss this topic on the Hockey IQ Podcast. Louis is a data analyst who took an approach to “Defining Physicality and Skaters’ Ability To Play Through It” with available public data. You can listen to his specific Hockey IQ Podcast episode here:
Effective Physicality
Great physical play is about using positioning and physical leverage to your advantage. Here are six areas that we can look at:
1. Proactive Contact Peripherals - Hits, stick-checks, blocks, or even penalties drawn (they are often the result of a player successfully inviting contact).
2. Transition Contests - Entry targets where the defender rapidly closes space on the carrier to deny possession past the blue line. Or this could be with the puck where the carrier is subject to pressure but successfully maneuvers through it for a successful breakout.
3. Forechecking Engagement - Initial engagement off of forecheck commitments, including puck recoveries, pressures onto opposing defensemen’s retrieval attempts, and disrupted exits.
4. Forecheck Offence - Chance creation off forecheck involvement. Whether that’s with shots or assists, this prioritizes the blending of physical leverage, puck control, and processing.
5. Down-Low Playmaking - Maneuvering contact is also rather important during low offensive zone play. Passes originating from low in the offensive zone improve teams’ scoring states, and require comfort in one’s ability to wade through tight spaces consistently.
6. Net-Front Presence - The volume of events in the net front and finishing on rebounds, tips, and deflections. Defencemen are quantified by the mirror opposite of the forwards.
Physical Stat Card
These six areas are broken out and then summarized up to a “Play Through Contact” score. It captures skaters who are often willing to engage in high-contact areas and consistently succeed when pressured with the puck.
One area that Louis highlighted in his research shows that the Florida Panthers were just below average height & weight amongst playoff teams during their Stanley Cup runs. It wasn’t just brawn, but smart and willing to play with physicality. The Carolina Hurricanes just won the Stanley Cup with a D-Corp that you’d put in a similar category.
You can check out Louis’ work on his website, where you can access the Free Tools page and premium sections as well.
If you want to win when it matters most, you have to be willing and able to play a physical brand of hockey… just not the one that likely immediately jumps to the top of your head.
Further Reading