Greg Wyshynski [Wyshynski - Take Your Eye Off the Puck: How to Watch Hockey By Knowing Where to Look

To the puckheads, the fanatics, the rink rats, and anyone who ever shed a tear over this stupid, silly game of ours. Remember, theres no such thing as a non-hockey fan; only those who have yet to let the light of hockey shine unto their hearts

Contents

Foreword by Jeremy Roenick

I love my job as an analyst for the NHL on NBC. After playing hockey for most of my life, getting to sit around and talk about the game for a living has made for a pretty nice second career.

The team I get to work withfrom Liam McHugh, Keith Jones, Mike Milbury, Kathryn Tappen, and the rest of the on-air talent to the crew and NBC staffis top of the line and makes our broadcasts entertaining and informative. I know we have a lot of fun on the set, and I think our viewers and fans have fun watching us on TV.

If we had an unlimited amount of time, Id like nothing more than to talk about the finer points of the game, all the Xs and Os and little plays that make the difference between winning and losing. Unfortunately, we only have a few minutes to recap whats happening before we throw it back to the game action.

Thats where a book like Take Your Eye Off the Puck comes in.

Hockey fans today know more about the game than they probably ever have, but you can watch 10 NHL games every week and still not fully understand whats going on. All the set plays the coaches draw up, the tricks that veteran players know how to pull, the reasons deflected goals arent lucky, and a million other parts of the game can get overlooked if you arent watching for them.

After reading this book, youll have a better understanding of how teams put their rosters together, how power plays and penalty kills are organized, how to get the most out of the advanced stats were starting to collect, and everything else that happens on the ice.

See you at the rink!

Introduction

At 14:43 of the second overtime session in Game 5 of the 2014 Stanley Cup Final, Alec Martinez scored the series-winning goal for the Los Angeles Kings, vanquishing the New York Rangers and giving the City of Angels its second Cup in three yearsand in the process earning me a share of the game-winning goal pool, which kept me awash in In-N-Out combo meals for the rest of the weekend.

Thats what you remember seeing on TV, right? Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist burying his gorgeous face in the blue paint of his crease as sticks flew through the air and the Kings mobbed their overtime hero? The black jerseyclad Orange County natives in the stands, leaping up and down in euphoria, trying not to pop their cosmetic surgery stitches? The Rangers players stoically staring across the empty rink, wondering if theyd ever advance that deeply into the postseason again (perhaps forgetting how hot-knife-through-room-temperature-butter it is to win in the Eastern Conference)?

Nothing in organized sports comes close to the unpredictability of a playoff overtime in the NHL, and the sudden catharsis or agony that accompanies its finale. Nothing in organized sports comes close to what happened next on that June evening in SoCal: the pageantry of Hockeys Holy Grail being bestowed upon its greatest team, as men on the ice become boys on the pond while they raise the Cup to the heavens.

But what makes hockey great is that its not just a moment of visceral thrills or superficial ecstasy. Everything that happens in the gameevery goal, every shot, every shift, every saveare the last dominos to topple over in a strikingly long sequence of events.

Its a player lifting the Cup, with hundreds of invisible arms lifting it with him.

Think of Martinez scoring that goal. He beat Lundqvist to the blocker side, with a gaping net at which to shoot. Pretend youve got this game on your DVR and hit rewind.

As a defenseman, Martinez could have decided to lead the scoring rush out of his own zone, or let the forwards handle it as he hung back. But he skated up with them, giving the Kings a brief odd-man rush before the exhausted Rangers back-checked.

Martinez passed to center Kyle Clifford, who passed to winger Tyler Toffoli, who skated into the attacking zone and unloaded a shot on Lundqvist. Henrik made the save but couldnt angle the rebound to a safe place in the zone, instead sending it to an onrushing Martinez.

Why was Martinez open for the shot? Because defenseman Kevin Klein of the Rangers decided to take Clifford as he drove the net, while both John Moore and Mats Zuccarello decided to defend Toffolis shot. That left Martinez unmarked for what amounted to a hockey layup.

Dial it back a few more moments: how did the Kings get out of their own zone so quickly and effectively?

Well, the Rangers rushed two forecheckers deep into the attacking zone; Zuccarello, their sniper, was late getting from the neutral zone to the front of the Kings net. A centering feed by Derick Brassard from Gretzkys Office was intercepted by Matt Greene, who passed the puck to Martinez, and away he went down the ice.

Dial it back even a few more moments: why was Martinez on the ice at that point in the game? Because the Kings top defensive pairing of Drew Doughty and Jake Muzzin came off on a change, having skated a 50-second shift about a minute earlier. On came Martinez, Greene, and the Kings fourth line, which coach Darryl Sutter rolled with confidence throughout the postseason, allowing his top scorers some much-needed rest.

OK, now pump up that DVR rewind to unforeseen speeds. Like, well beyond x4.

Dial it back a few months.

Where did this court of Kings come from? Well, Clifford had anchored the Kings fourth line since the 2013 postseason. Toffoli was a rookie on the 201314 Kings, settling into a role alongside Clifford. Martinez skated with Greene during the Kings 2012 Stanley Cup season, winning his first ring. He entered 201314 in a numbers crunch on the blue line. There was no promise that Martinez would be a regular for the Kings. But he earned his ice time with solid play, and there he was in Game 5.

Your DVR remote should be smoking by now, but who cares? Dial it back a few years .

Why was Martinez a King?

He was drafted by the team in the fourth round of the 2007 Entry Draft, No. 95 overall. The Kings needed defensive prospects in their system, and the Michigan-born Miami University (OH) prospect intrigued them. But then the team drafted star Drew Doughty, and three more defensemen, in the following year, so Martinez gestated in the minor leagues until 201011, when he played 60 games as a rookie for L.A.

The next season, he was a Stanley Cup champion. Two years later, he was a playoff legend.

What if on that fateful afternoon in 2007, the Kings had opted to draft Cade Fairchild insteada 19-year-old from Duluth who went No. 96 overall, and played a total of five games in the NHL? What if Martinez never emerged from the pack of other young defensemen? What if Martinez and Greene never clicked, or Clifford and Toffoli?

What if Darryl Sutter hadnt decided to put the energy line out there in double overtime? What if the Kings didnt execute that passing play? What if the Rangers hadnt gotten their wires crossed on that shift? What if Lundqvist pulled off a miraculous save? What if Martinez had flubbed the shot?

If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, then hockey would be Willy Wonka.

When a team hoists the Stanley Cup, its lifting the weight of hundreds of thousands of decisions along with it; decisions made on the ice and off that all led to that moment. One variable changes, and the fate of the team could change with it. Its like the Butterfly EffectOK, given the sport, maybe the Butterfly (Goalie) Effect.

If youre reading this book, its because youre curious about those decisions. Youre someone who knows that the game goes so far beyond whats captured by that big swinging television camera at center ice. You understand that taking your eye off the puck allows one to fully appreciate every other aspect of hockey and, thus, appreciate where the fickle little biscuit is headed next, and who might be there to stop it.