John Hynes' Tweaks Leading To Power Play Success

It’s no wonder the unit only succeeded on 16% of their power plays at the time the Wild dismissed Evason. What was most odd about this strategy was the lack of a presence in the middle of the penalty kill formation. Both forwards responsible for screening the goalie often planted themselves firmly in front of the goalie, rather than spacing one forward out higher in the slot, potentially adding a second layer for potential screens/deflections.

Going away from some variation of a 1-3-1 formation in today’s NHL flies against the face of a league-wide trend. To understand that trend and why it’s more than just coaches copying each other, it’s important to go back to 2015, when a former-goalie-turned-analyst discovered a somewhat revolutionary trend with scoring in the NHL.

Stephen Valiquette’s career as a goaltender spanned just six seasons, but he took what he saw in front of him on the ice and into the analyst booth following his playing days. He understood how much more difficult it was for an NHL goalie to move laterally right before a shot was taken, rather than staying on their angle to make the easy save.

Following the 2014-2015 season, Valiquette reviewed 100 NHL games to put his theory to the test. The results were pretty eye-opening, and the results of his study had a huge impact when shaping the powerplays we see today.

Valiquette’s research helped coin the philosophy of the “royal road” in hockey. You can read about it in extreme depth here, but his research showed how vital pre-shot movement with the puck is in influencing shooting percentages. While only 15% of all shots involved pre-shot movement, they accounted for 50% of the goals in the 100 games he reviewed.

It was contrary to what most coaches believed at the time: that there was never a bad shot on goal and players should be throwing it to the crease whenever possible. Valiquette suggested teams should stop wasting time with low percentage shots from distance, but instead focus all their efforts on waiting for the best shot possible.

Here is a quick diagram of where the invisible “Royal Road” line exists on the ice.

Image Credit: Chris Boyle of omha.net

Valiquette’s research found that a shot immediately following a pass across this invisible line on the ice increased the shooter’s chances of scoring by ten times. TEN! He coined those goals green goals due to just how many of the goals they account for in the NHL. But Valiquette took that a step further in observing every goal from those 100 games. Here are the three most common types of goals scored in the NHL.

1)     Passes Across the Royal Road Line – 22%

2)     Screens – 10%

3)     One-Timers from the Same Side of the Royal Road – 9%

We'll stop the list there because these are the three shot types that a 1-3-1 formation focuses on more than any other type of shot (as detailed further in his research). Minnesota's 1-3-1 runs through Zuccarello on the left flank. This is to set him up for the Wild's ideal play: making a pass across the Royal Road for a Kaprizov one-timer.

Hynes' system is putting Boldy in the middle of the ice, as another option for Zuccarello, typically just a shade on the same side of that middle invisible line. Because of Hynes, a simple formation shift and change in philosophy is giving the Wild’s best passer multiple ways to dish to the two goal-scorers in the situations that generate the highest shooting percentages an NHL team can get.

Finally, Joel Eriksson Ek is still planted in front to provide a screen on any type of shot selection.

The 1-3-1 formation with Boldy serving as a heavy "bumper" presence gives Zuccarello options at three different types of shot selections that account for 41% of all goals scored in the NHL. Before the coaching change, Evason and company were hyper-focused on screens, and thus their highest volume shot selection fell into the bucket of just 10% of all goals scored.

It’s not a shock then to see the Wild PP instantly improve to 30% in his first six games, and it looks as though it could become even more potent with more practice. Hynes can't change everything overnight, but some small tweaks have made Minnesota a tougher out on any night.