How NHL's most creative players create time, space

The Coaches Room is a weekly feature throughout the 2018-19 NHL season by one of four former NHL coaches and assistants who will turn their critical gaze to the game and explain it through the lens of a teacher.
In this edition, Willie Desjardins, former coach of the Vancouver Canucks, explores how players create time and space for themselves in the offensive zone.

Take away time and space. Those are words you will always hear from coaches and players when they talk about defending. Take it all away, especially in the slot, the highest danger area on the ice, because if you don't you can get burned.
I thought about that and it got me wondering about the opposite, how some of the best players in the NHL find the time and space for themselves. I experimented last weekend by analyzing 50 goals scored this season, each by a big-time impact player, to see what each does to get time and space.
I made some interesting discoveries.
The first way is simple; they get an outnumbered rush. The defense must be passive on an outnumbered rush and that leaves you, as the attacking players, time and space to make plays.
Even then, though, the shooter needs to get the puck off his stick quickly. Hesitation allows the defense time to recover.
Look at forward Jamie Benn's goal off a 2-on-1 with center Tyler Seguin in the Dallas Stars' 5-3 win against the Anaheim Ducks on Oct. 13. It's bang-bang, a quick release and in the net.

Another way to create time and space to score is through the middle-lane drive, which backs up the 'D.' It can be either the driver creating it for the player coming in behind them, or the driver creating the space and then getting the puck in position to score.
A good example of the latter is Sidney Crosby's goal in the Pittsburgh Penguins' 5-0 win at the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday. He created it all with his middle drive. He created the room for the pass to go across the ice, and then by splitting and getting behind the defense, he created the time and space for himself to get the puck and score.

There are delay plays, where a guy comes down hard on the rush, backs off and peels away, separates from the 'D,' giving him time to make a play and teammates time to join the play. Penguins forward Phil Kessel did this perfectly, leading to defenseman Jamie Oleksiak's goal during a 6-5 overtime win at the Edmonton Oilers on Oct. 23.

Then you have players like Oilers center Connor McDavid and Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon, where their time and space is based off sheer speed.
McDavid scored in a 5-3 win at the Nashville Predators on Saturday simply because of his speed. It was off a face-off win. The Edmonton captain is in the neutral zone. There is nothing there. He splits the defense, ends up behind them and scores.

Forward Matt Nieto scored for the Avalanche in a 6-3 win against the Ottawa Senators on Friday because of MacKinnon, who came so hard down the wing that he flew past defenseman Chris Wideman and the defenseman in front of the net, Thomas Chabot, had to leave Nieto in front.
That happens more often than you think, the passer creating the time and space for the shooter.

The most interesting goals were from the players we'd characterize as shooters, players who don't really need the time element because they get the shot off so quickly.
I didn't expect to see shooters drifting away from the net as often as I did, but the reason they drift is because when you're in the high-traffic area of the slot a lot of times there is somebody in your shooting lane, so you might get the puck with space but there are still guys between you and the net that are in position to block your shot.
A shooter must adjust, and the examples I found show shooters are more willing to go away from the net to score their goals. When shooters drift wide, nobody can get between them and the net and the goaltender has to move further over to get to that spot.
The 'D' can't always go wide to take away the shooting lane because most of the time they must hold the front of the net. In those instances, the players in front of the net are the ones who create the time and space for the shooters on the outside.
Look at Chicago Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane's goal in a 3-1 win against the Anaheim Ducks on Oct. 23. Center Artem Anisimov has the middle-lane drive. Kane stays wide, gets the pass from defenseman Erik Gustafsson and has time, space and the good angle to score on his one-timer from the right circle.

Look at center Elias Pettersson's first goal in the Canucks' 5-2 win against the Minnesota Wild on Monday. He drifts away from the net because if he stops in the slot there will be a defender to block his shot. He scores on the one-timer.

My big takeaway from that is the big fish don't hang out inside the slot even though we so often hear people saying you have to get to the net to score goals in the NHL. Shooters create their space on the outside, which makes sense because that's where they can get more time too.