Neutral Zone 4 - Passing In The Neutral Zone

LATERAL PUCK MOVEMENT IN THE NZ

https://hockey-graphs.com/2019/10/24/lateral-puck-movement-in-the-nz/#more-23878

Research shows that lateral/”east-west” puck movement in the offensive zone is beneficial to increasing one’s odds of scoring.

it might also be useful to generate east-west puck movement in the neutral zone.

When you rush the puck up ice, the defending team will focus on that side, leaving the other side of the ice somewhat more open, so there might be open ice to exploit.

Entering the zone between the faceoff dots is clearly preferable to entering the zone on the outside.

a lane change from the center to the outside might be a lot less efficient than a lane change from the outside-in.

The main takeaway here is that it’s preferable to go outside-in rather than inside-out through the Neutral Zone.

Findings:

·        Stretch Passes are more dangerous when played cross ice than straight up ice.

·        Passes to the inside from the wing at the blue line generate more Expected Goals than passes straight up ice. This seems to be somewhat dependent on the previous though, as further research into these specific pass types points out.

·        The closer you get to the opponent’s blue line, the larger the effect of going outside-in becomes, in fact, passes from an outside lane to the inside lane right at the blue line lead to the most dangerous chances of any potential Exit/Neutral Zone/Entry pass.