When the entire NHL HATES how you play 

The comment at 6:18 is top tier. Watching the segment before I was like “fuck, we all know what happens next!”

“1-3-1 isn’t impenetrable, just be Connor McDavid.”

If you're old like me you remember the New Jersey Devils and their trap system in the 90s, holy hell, that was tough to watch.

Well done on explaining and showing what the 1-3-1 is. Thanks

the key to break the 1-3-1 is: The Flying V

The 1-3-1 has vulnerabilities. The coaches just need to adapt.

this is the style of hockey which is used by Finland regularly on international level. It has brought them gold from the olympics, and 3 consecutive WC final appearances.

i remember that flyers-lightning game like it was yesterday

Great analysis. Perhaps LAK formation could be called "Adaptive 1-3-1" or "Dynamic 1-3-1" as you clearly show in some footage that LAK is fore checking and attacking still.

I was at that lighting flyers game. One take at the time that stood out to me back then was essentially "Baseball is the only sport where the team on defense has the duty to advance the state of play to the team on offense. (By Pitching) So the bolts sitting back and waiting is absolutely acceptable. "

Danault is just like Kopitar. #1 Center focuses defense first but has elite offensive ability faceoff specialist and yes very underrated as well

Really liked this style of video. You have a great way of presenting concepts and showcasing examples. Very informative!

Yeah this 1 3 1 doesn’t work on teams with speed like the oilers, avs, stars, etc..

"One of the biggest reasons why the New Jersey Devils rose to prominence in the mid-1990s (1995-1996 excepted) and won the Stanley Cup in 1995 was their use of the Neutral Zone Trap. It's a defensive system that head coach Jacques Lemaire drilled into the team, who collectively bought into it to great success. The Devils didn't invent the trap or created it out of nowhere. Per this Toronto Hockey article that explains it somewhat, the Montreal Canadiens of the 1970s used this system as well - and it's origins lie further back in international play. Lemaire was on those incredibly successful teams, so it's not really a surprise that he recalled it and implemented it when coaching New Jersey and elsewhere. Granted, the Devils weren't loaded with talent as those Montreal teams; but it certainly gave the Devils an edge at the time."

It's a strategy, so figure it out. Nothing wrong with changing the norm and trying a different outlook, especially if it works.

I found a way to play through that tactic. Pick carrier plays the puck back, and the new carrier, plays the puck to the opposite side, and you have a one on one in the neutral zone

I actually enjoy 1-3-1 hockey. It’s not an impenetrable defence but it demands for good coaching and high skill to break it as your video detailed. And I love the tactician elements of hockey. I love seeing coaches find ways to break things like a neutral zone trap.

I say, the puck carrier exiting their zone favour their opposite wing while rushing into the neutral zone. When the defenders close in on the puck carrier, spin into the boards while protecting the puck and draw the defense away from the rest of the team. If done correctly, this should allow a forehand pass in the neutral zone to a variety of streaking players who can possibly force an odd man rush into the attacking zone. Either that or skate the puck back to the goaltender, let him smother the puck, and have a defensive zone faceoff. It might be the only way to draw in the forecheckers.

It just seems like a slight variation of the neutral zone trap from the 90s. Dump and chase is what teams came up with to get around it back then, and that was boring to watch, but it seemed like teams got better at it over time. The rules changes of 2 line pass and goalie restriction zone helped a lot. If you want to kill 1-3-1 quickly, it will take another rules change for defensive neutral zone infraction

Love the heat, GKG

Great job w/this video. Here's the truth: a LOT of teams are going to be going to a 1-3-1 come playoff time not just LA, you can bet the house on that. I always wonder what would happen if the puck handler wound up and slap shot the puck at the head of the opposing F1 diagonal cross neutral ice if the 1-3-1 teams would start wondering about the price they'd have to pay to play it. Just a thought lol Dino Ciccarelli would be proud, anyway. At 3:38, if Miller cranks that puck at the head/neck area of that F1 (I can't see who he is), and they do that a few times for intention, it has to make them think about how they're defending next time.

Thank you. Everyone is bitching about how boring the Kings are but how many of them have actually watched more than 1 or 2 Kings games this season? If they did then they would already know all of the points you touched on. They don't use it regardless of the situation, they set it up *sometimes* depending on the situation.

You really did a good job explaining this, any chance you'd do a video on the devils neutral zone trap? I've heard a lot about it but I don't have a clear understanding on how it works

I'm a little surprised you didn't mention the neutral zone back pass used to freeze defending player movement in the neutral zone. The trap is much harder to set when there is no red line pass rule, and a dump-in with only one back and an attacking team with speed sets up an odd man opportunity deep in the attacking zone.

Great video, well explained

This is no different from when the Devils had success playing their trapping system. Look, I think it sucks, but the object is to win games, not to be aesthetically pleasing. And the referees could help out by being a little more vigilant calling all the clutching and grabbing that goes along with a trapping system. And there are ways to defeat a trap. Be patient, take the short passes, lug the puck over the red line and then dump, chase, retrieve and cycle. That sucks to watch a team doing that, too, but that's how you beat a trap. I'm a Penguins fan, and I remember Mario and Jagr adapting their style of play and having quite a bit of success vs. New Jersey.

Good reasons for changing to 4 skaters instead of 5 or going to international size ice. There are just too many players and not enough ice surface.

i might be biased because Im a kings fan, but i dont really find the way they play boring at all. They've had tons of high score games this season, both for and against. People just like to make excuses for losing, want their star players to score, and get upset when they can't. Combined it makes the 1-3-1 easy to complain about. I'm sure those same people wouldn't be having any more fun if their defense just stopped trying and gave kempe, moore, or byfield a breakaway on their goaile

You break plays down better than most on TV- get this man a contract!!!

Interesting video. Never seen this strategy before!!!

The 2011 E. Conference Finals, Bruins Lightning game 7 is the pinnacle of the NHL. Both teams stacked with talent, displaying ectrifying goaltending, unbelievable defensive efforts, equally physical and hard hitting forechecking, high speed and tense play all in a one-goal game.... with zero penalties. Incredible!

I enjoy scoring, but I also enjoy great defense. Call me strange, but I usually cheer for the away team and defensive physicality. I am more entertained by the hype getting shut up.

The oilers have a pretty good record against the LA kings both reg season and playoffs. I think how the oilers beat them is they’re a fast rush team and the kings can stop some of their rushes but with sheer volume the oilers get their chances off the rush and once you beat them in the zone and get the cycle going LA is average at best at defending against the cycle.

Yeah, I remember watching that Flyers/Lightning game. Had Admiral Akbar over the mancave. He was like: " Oh, I've seen this before, I'm out."

I’ve been hearing about the 1-3-1 drama for over 10 years. If it still works then fuck it. Play it.

Is this really different from the New Jersey neutral zone trap? It sounds like the counter-move is the same dump-and-chase.

yeah for some reason the 2011 stanley cup final is a blur to me

I had forgotten the finals were cancelled in 2011 until reminded at 6:18. Vancouver fans were so upset that they cancelled the victory parade and set the town on fire.

I played a lot of high end hockey as a kid, WHL, Jr.A, and we played the 1-3-1 a lot, but ONLY when we were up 1-2 goals, nearing the end of the game. I can’t imagine playing that style all game long right off the drop. 🥵 Especially frustrating for the fans who pay big money to watch these games

In the SHL (Swedish Hockey League, then Elitserien) Djurgårdens IF and Västra Frölunda (now only Frölunda) where famous for playing this way in the 1990's. And Djurgården won 3 championships in a row playing 1-3-1 hockey.

Finally someone breaks down hockey tactics in a way I can actually follow. Thank you, buddy.

What is the alternative supposed to be?

As a lightning fan, I look back fondly on 2011 because of the fun playoff run but the season of 1-3-1 was brutal to watch. And when we started bringing up players like Palat, Johnson, Kucherov, our team got faster and more explosive and didn't really fit that sit and wait system. It's no surprise that Boucher didn't last much longer as he wasn't exploiting our strengths and teams started picking us apart. Enter Cooper, say goodnight to 1-3-1 and the rest was history

I wish I came across your channel earlier in this season, my brother and friends have been telling me to watch the Canucks, but I've only finally started with the playoffs :P ah well, no time like the present.

The neutral zone trap has been used since the 1970's with the Canadiens. Jacques Lemaire was a huge fan of this scheme as a player, and used it as a coach for the Devils and Wild. Many teams will shift to this strategy to protect a lead too.

The same defense is played in Basketball and it is effective………..but is easily beat. It is a trap where the lead player forces the puck to one side or the other. As soon as the lead player commits, you get rid of the puck with a sort pass up the middle through the gap. The key is to wait for the commit from the defence. Another way to beat it is Bobby Orr style. Beat the first guy and the trap is broken.

2:33 - There was an entire era called the dead puck era, and teams have played the trap for decades, and this is just another example of a tactical way of controlling the speed of play. And like those tactics, there are ways to beat the 1-3-1. There is no inherent way to play hocky.

I like it. I like watching different styles and strategies collide.

The most important factor in a 1 3 1 is the center man and his ability to cut the play off so it makes sense that with the king's 3 big centers, they do well at it. Canucks actually played the king's last night and faired a bit better against it because Quinn Hughes would carry the puck past a certain point against the center and be able to draw more guys. Anyhow I'd say we won way more entries but Quinn Hughes skated so much more than other games, don't know if that's sustainable in the playoffs

Pass behind your back to open player on the other side. Or just deep lob the puck on goal or into the corner.

Looking at it, 1 3 1 is just a more tactical approach to Hockey. It's not really rocket science. And as frustrating as it can be to play against, (because it's a competition of tactics.) it doesn't inherently ruin or even alter the game of Hockey in any meaningful sense. Besides, a smart tactically minded team can find plenty of ways to power through it with speed. Hearing players complain about this is like listening to Caeser's enemies complain that he out-maneuvered them. That's the name of the game.

They should remove the trapezid and allow goalies to venture out there to retrieve pucks. Hilarity should ensue shortly!

9 goals last night… Kings are about 40 goals in the positive… I realize many of these comments were posted before last night, but still… kinda negates a lot of the “points” I’m seeing…

There are plays a team can do to defeat this defense, but there is one rule that I wouldn’t mind changing that could help alleviate the problem. That would be if all players abandon their offensive zone at the time of a pass, icing would be waved off. This would allow the team with possession of the puck to not worry about missed passes up the ice.

Look. We just don’t talk about the 2011 Boston Bruins.

Pretty brilliant system when they execute it properly. Kings have the 4th least goals allowed in the league with 4 games remaining. Call it boring but you’re probably just frustrated because that’s what it’s meant to do. Effectively shut down the opposing teams offense.

Hockey is about winning first and about the entertainment second. If you're winning, your success becomes entertaining to the crowds no matter what you play. You might be entertaining but losing and the crowds will sit home. Nobody cares how war is won. The final results is what counts. If you play 1-3-1, it's up to the other team to figure out your weak spots and beat you. To force their style of play on you. Make your life miserable out there. You are free to choose how you're going to play. Ive always maintained throughout my life that if you want to win, you must become far better than the rest so you have tools to break them. Its not enough to be just as good as the other side. They must fear your abilities when you (in this case) step on the ice. Thats why i always encouraged that mindset. I had to learn it, too,it didnt come just by itself. To be just as good as the top aint enough - if so, youre relying on hope that you will have better day than them. And as we all know, "hope" is very dangerous a word. I think McDavid has those qualities, even as I think he could be better overall player than he is. He can singlehandedly take the game over offensively simply because he's that much better than the the rest. Datsyuk was that kind of a player as well. No defensive system worked against him if he decided to turn it up. But Datsyuk was far more valuable to his team than McDavid is because he was incredibly smart in playing defense, too. Kings play very opportunistic style of hockey because of its personnel. Tight defense and waiting for the opposing team breakdown in positioning. They don't have the star players other teams have, so their system fits the team structure. We have yet to see how successful it will be in playoffs.

It's a strategy like any other. If more teams played it, mire teams would train against it and counterstrategies would evolve. What do you want them to do? Make a rule "you cannot defend, because it takes away the action from the game?"

Great video, crying about how the opponent plays d is the worst thing I ever heard!!! Gimmick systems always have a flaw, just find it and exploit it.

In czech hockey league there is a team called Oceláři Třinec and theyre well-known here for playing the same style as L.A.

I don’t hate it. Its a methodical way to play the sport, I honestly respect it.

Its always wild to me that the arguments against the trap are always "booo, stop playing defense, let us attack your net"

Excellent content right here!

that 2011 game 7 ecf goal was electric man. cannot believe that was 13 freaking years ago.

"It's not real hockey" means "We did not found out how to beat it, yet"

Good video! Of course people are going to whine when hitting a wall they aren't smart enough to penetrate. The only problem is that they themselves haven't found the key. Imho, it seemed that the 1-3-1 system as we saw it in this video often left an open space on the opposite side of where the puck carrier was charging. Plenty of space for a rocket player to receive a pass.

2011 the Lightning lost game 7 in the ECF 1-0 to the Bruins. They lost the 4 games by a total of 5 points. Looking at Stamkos in the handshake line you can see his bloodied nose. He took a puck in the face and it broke his nose. He immediately went down the tunnel, came back 5 minutes later with a full cage on his helmet and a tampon in his nose. That's when I really knew we had something in this kid. The next year, he scored 60 goals. Also in 2011, the Bolts drafted Nikita Kucherov and Andre Palat. Thankfully, in the 2012-13 lockout season they brought in head coach Jon Cooper!

You completely forgot to mention that the most recent team who won a Stanley Cup that had perfected the modern trap system was the 2019 Blues. They would win any game they had a lead in by clogging the neutral zone and adding to the score with a lethal counter rush game. You could argue that the 2019 Blues had a better version of the modern trap system since they wouldn’t fully sit back and would continually pile on and forecheck even with a lead which would wear teams down as each series went on longer. They were also comfortable defending in their own zone too as they would allow far more shots than they’d take themselves but they’d keep everything to the outside for the most part and block a ton of shots which would often lead to odd man breaks the other way resulting in more goals.

It's nothing new. Its the old New Jersey Devil's mid ice trap strategy from the mid-1990s. It's how they held a high flying Detroit Red Wings offense to seven goals in a four game sweep in the 1995 Cup finals.

Simple albeit not probably bulletproof solution if this actually becomes a problem that counter-strategy doesn't address first: - If the offense has the puck behind their own blue line and all defenders are on the other side of the blue line for 10 seconds, it's a faceoff near the defensive team's net. - After this, if the defense DOES cross the blue line but the offense evades and doesn't get the puck across the blue line within 10 seconds (unless a defender touches the puck during), it's a faceoff near the offensive team's net. This punishes teams for relying on neutral zone trap-styles of play and forces play closer to the net if they try to waste more than a few seconds probing the defense.

The only thing about the 1-3-1 that I don't like is that not pressuring the D-men to make a pass and waiting for them to make a pass before making you move. Not putting pressure on a puck carrier goes against every hockey instinct I have and you get Pronger making a mockery of it which is painful to watch. There is nothing illegal about it from a hockey sense. I would think that when playing against it, it would be important to get a lead, even a one goal lead could work, since the system seems offensively challenged. Force them to get out of their passive style where they would be disadvantaged. How do you get a lead? Maybe rush a defender up with the forwards aggressively to start the game to try to get the lead before they settle into the trap, you know that they don't play aggressive offensively so maybe take some chances against it or play it like a power play, 2 guys on the puck at all times until you get possession. Getting a lead against it to force them out of it would be my strategy I think.

I don't mind the tactic. Teams just need to adapt their breakouts.

LOL...I find it amusing that during the early to mid 90s, the same thing was being said about the NJ Devils and the Neutral Zone trap. LOL.

this was the NJD when they were winning cups. get the first goal early in the 1st period and win the game 1-0 or 2-0.

The 1-3-1 used to only be effective when u had a goalie who could handle the puck well but now with increase in the game speed, I fear it will become the new normal. NOTHING will be more boring than when 2 teams 1-3-1 each other all game,every game

Surprised to see no erik karlsson era ottawa mentioned

Amazing Vid

When you meet the "pressure wall" button hook back and pass to a streaking teammate going down the other side of the ice?

I hate it but if you're winning you're winning

Great explanation.

Brian Burke mentioned it recently, short passes and structured breakouts kill the 1-3-1 since the three guys can get turned and burned. It is great at defending long passes. I dont like how the Kings are getting flak thoufh because nearly every team engages in similar defensice schemes at points in games.

The Oilers 1-3-1'd themselves to a Stanley Cup final in 2006. It's the strategy of teams without any real fire power or speed. Teams need to combat it by not setting up in their own zone. Don't leave the neutral zone if you can avoid it for a setup

Maybe if the opposite winger went up the opposite side a quick pass to the unguarded side would be an easy entrance to the offensive zone

I’m sure our American commissioner will somehow make this strategy illegal so teams in Florida Carolina and Arizona can draw hundreds of fans😂

1-3-1 is usually countered with a 3-1-1. You nuturlize the solo 1 out in front. They literally will never get the puck, and if they somehow do, it will be a 2v1 every time. No one has a nuts to run a 3-1-1, though, as it's not effective verse a 2 1 2

Its variation of the neutral zone trap. Shouldn't coaches have figured out how to beat it by now? I guess the issue is that most teams aren't structured these days to get through it. This style is what led to so many teams playing dump and chase which I don't really care to watch as much as good teams playing a puck possession style of hockey, but that's just me.

They completely changed the game because the "trap defense" only for another form of trap defense, like it wasn't inevitable.

Teams just have to hammer the dman recovering the puck everytime they are forced to dump it in

Am I missing some inside joke? The Cup finals were not canceled in 2011. Bruins beat Vancouver in 7 games.

Funny, as a Bruins fan I seem to remember them holding the Final in 2011. Though for 28.5 teams, it was definitely cancelled (Bieksa showed up at least). More on topic: the 1-3-1 is annoying and while I totally understand why it's allowed as a strategy, I'm totally ok with teams taking a page out of the Flyer's book on this one.

I don't follow hockey much but in Basketball terms up the pace win the race. You can't rely on a Defense to make your job easy for you, you got to be faster. This isn't a wall it's a bridge with different points sharing the weight - it means it moves with the tension where there's the most pressure. So if you try going straight through you won't be able to do it, you got to make it buckle on one side and attack on the other. I think also if you know a teams strategy you should be preparing for it no? Seems to me like a skill issue.

Man I remember the fus that caused after the philly vs tampa game. I thought it was hilarious.

None of us will have a problem with our team winning the cup with a 1-3-1

“And then for whatever reason the Stanley Cup Finals were cancelled that year” led to me immediately subscribing

Dave King invented this system with the Canadian 1984 Olympic Team

Seems like, since speech can attack it effectively, the problem with it is it exposes a lack of speed in the league.

Can’t believe you called it “the Sedins’ play”. As it was around way before then. I invented it in 1983 with Carl. Then shammer and muggsy from the shakers team did it twice but they even came out and said they got it from us

I love how at 4:05, you refer to Kevin Fiala as “number 22”, but seconds later, you actually use people’s names.

I will never ever forget that Tampa and Philly game. I was totally against it at the time. I am a massive LA Kings fan. And I’m all for it now. It’s on the ice, it’s legal hockey. And you still gotta score to win. Granted it’s boring and kinda scummy. That’s always been the kings in a nutshell. So I’ll take the W

Neutral zone trap systems are one of the main reasons I really believe they need to allow some degree of offsides... Let offensive players get more speed and be more aggressive to beat a trap without worrying about offsides by an inch and negating a goal