Game Preview: Hawks @ Kings 3/19
A look at the 1-3-1 NZ and how to beat it. Or at least we can hope.
Ok, so I lied. I'm doing at least one game preview this week.
The Hawks just lost to the Kings last Friday and got smoked 5-0. A big part of that was how the Kings clogged the neutral zone. As was quoted numerous times and talked about by Ben Pope, the Kings stifled the Hawks with a 1-3-1 neutral zone setup.
That's the focus of today's game preview. How can the Hawks beat the 1-3-1 and pull off a W?
Quick warning, I am absolutly couch coaching the hell out of this and very aware of it.
The 1-3-1 Neutral Zone Forecheck
The Kings employ the 1-3-1 NZ Forecheck against slower teams and utilize a more conservative 1-2-2 against faster teams. As outlined in Jack Han's Hockey Tactics 2024, the Kings use the 1-3-1 to push the puck carrier to the left. The D1 on the left pressures the puck carrier to make an early decision, which is to force a dump-in and hope that the puck carrier dumps it early and ices the puck. D2 is already positioned to retrieve the puck. This makes it dangerous against teams who are slower to regroup and the Kings are already in good position with 4 players above the puck.
Other than forcing the puck carrier to make a decision, the Kings' 1-3-1 is also effective at ensuring that they take away long passes as an option on the breakout.
What can the Hawks do?
With a team like the Hawks, there's not a whole lot of options. They can easily find themselves in the same situation they found themselves in on Friday. They're not fast and they struggle on breakouts.
Looking at data from JFresh Hockey and AllThreeZones, the Hawks are 28th at possession exits and 28 at DZ Retrieval Success, indicating their struggles on the breakout. The Hawks are already limited to a simple quick-up for breakouts and chip behind pressure in the NZ. But this gives up the controlled entry and looking at the Hawks numbers, they're already awful at retrievals in the OZ.
For their breakout, they need to lock on the basics. One player retrieves the puck. One player goes to the net or the backside corner. The other player goes in the slot. They should be forming a triangle. This leaves the wingers up high and ready for a breakout.
Of course this assumes good passes are made and everyone is positionally sound.
A critical area the Hawks need to consider are regroups. While on the breakout they are limited to the quick up, they need to figure out their regroups.
Hinge Play
Luke Richardson wants the Hawks to play simple. They need to. With the way the Kings play the 1-3-1, they give up space beyond the far blue line. The Hawks can take advantage of this with a hinge play, but it has to be well executed by the players.
In the above scenario, you have D1 passing to D2 who skates forward and sees that he has no passing options because the Kings have clogged the NZ. D2 passes back to D1, who would have already skated to the mid-ice lane by using a hinge play to accelerate and possibly draw in a forechecker and open up some options.
This is a simple lane regroup, and remember. The Hawks need simplicity. Something a bit more complex would be a motion regroup, which would require the Center to switch positions with one of the wingers.
A lot of things need to go right for the Hawks.
1 - Positionally sound DZ puck retrievals
2- Quick breakouts with good passing
3- Well executed NZ regroups
Look, we've all seen the Hawks play. So don't get your hopes.