Edmonton Oilers rookie Taylor Hall scored his first NHL goal last night, playing eight games before getting it, fittingly, on a re-direction.
Tip-ins are great slump-breakers.
As goaltending has evolved, being able to deflect the puck has become a must-have tool in the arsenal of an offensive player. Take John Tavares' second goal (1-minute mark) for the New York Islanders a few nights back -- this stuff doesn't happen by accident.
Goaltending has evolved to a place where all you can do is maximize your percentages, and the amount of good things that come from the screen/tip combo have made it a mainstay around the NHL.
There's a right way to do it (Tavares, stick-blade) and a wrong way (me, face).
After practice, players will occasionally take turns parking squarely in front of the net while a teammate snaps pucks to either side of his body. The goal of the tip is to reverse the direction of the shot -- if it's up, bring it down. If it's going to the goalie's glove side, tip it across his body towards his blocker side. That way you don't push a perfectly good shot wide, like younger players constantly do while attempting the glorious-but-rare open-blade-top-shelf deflection.
You want the puck to come in (across the net) not only because it could find the moving goaltender's five-hole, but because you need to make sure it hits the net, causing rebounds and goal-mouth scrambles. It's tough for a goalie to control a rebound when he has no idea where the initial shot will hit him.
(Yes, Hall opened his blade up, but he was on-top of the goalie enough to be able to do so. Generally you try to tip pucks down and across.)
Prediction for the year: Someone will score a goal with a butt-end redirection. Players love trying to do that in practice - if you can't get your stick across your body quick enough, you just knock the shot down with your the knob of your stick. It'll be highlight reel material when it happens.
The Millers and Bryzgalovs of the League are too big and too agile to be beaten cleanly with any consistency, which is why the coach's manual has a whole chapter of clichés on goal-scoring:
"We need to get traffic in front."
"We've got to take away his eyes."
"We've got to keep it simple."
Essentially, redirections are what teams are referring to when they say they need to keep it simple - work the puck to the point man and fire it, get the man in front to get a stick on it, and hope for some bounces.
It's a hot-goalie killer as much as it is a slump breaker. When a team just can't find a way to beat a guy, it's one of their only hopes -- think Jaroslav Halak in playoffs last year for the Montreal Canadiens. The Washington Capitals had, if my figures are correct, a 6,000 shot-per-game average. And according to the accurate and totally real statistic book that lay beside me, they never once scored on a clean, first-shot attempt. They needed tips and rebounds to diffuse him, which they didn't accomplish nearly enough.
Players have made careers out of being able to do it well (Tomas Holmstrom), but the skill isn't just for grinders willing to muck it up anymore -- everybody needs to be able to do it (as attested by the fact that Hall and Tavares were playing in front of the net on the PP).
Going forward, we're going to see more of this, not less. Tenders around the League aren't about to get worse, so players have to be resourceful in generating as many opportunities as possible.
It may look like luck sometimes, and part of it is. But when it happens as consistently as it does, you have to respect the fact that it's no accident.
Isn't it fitting? One of the best offensive tools a guy has is playing "just the tip."
David Desharnais Andrew Desjardins Andre Deveaux Justin DiBenedetto
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