When NHL copies floorball

Interviews in North American sports are usually a joke. The three standard sentences are re-used over and over again: ”traffic in front of the net”, ”more shots” and ”work harder” are the answers used to every question. Now, there is one quote that I would love to hear one day, and it is getting more and more realistic that I will. ”I saw Tim Braillard play that pass once, and thought it would work here too”, says Niklas Backström after a Alexander Ovechking powerplay goal for the Washington Capitals. The thing is, that floorball influences are gaining more and more ground in the world’s best ice hockey league. I will now take you through three trendy things in the NHL, that are carbon copies of things that have worked in floorball for ages.

The leagues best powerplay
They run a powerplay with the Swede Niklas Bäckström (in the second pp with Russian Evgeni Kuznetsov) in a floorball type playmaker position. He has a right shooter on the point, in the middle and on the far side, and a left shooter down low on the same height as the goal line. It is a floorball take on the popular Umbrella-Powerplay that you often see in ice hockey, with the big exceptions that the net front guy is here giving support down low instead of only picking up rebounds, and the guys on the sides are having their sticks facing the middle, ready to shoot one-timers, instead of the typical hockey way of having sticks facing the boards, to be able to one-time passes from down low.

Let me put it this way: this floorballish version of a classical hockey powerplay is doing magic things for the Washington Capitals: they have had the best powerplay in the NHL for the last three seasons, and they are second best at the moment.

_{Backström finds the right-handed Ovechkin}

Bäckström - having played floorball as off-ice training in Sweden - has so many options, that are hard to take away. The point guy can fire a one-timer, the middle guy can fire a one-timer and on the far side is a guy called Alexander Ovechkin (yes, he can also hit the puck) And he can go down low for other angles to reach these three guys. Very typical floorball set up, that has worked in our sport for ages, but is pretty new to the NHL.



Kane, Nielsen and Oshie
Nowadays, if you see a penalty shot in the NHL, chances are that the players will come in with a lot less speed than a couple of years ago. Very similar to a floorball penalty shot. Sure, the old men commentating will go ”I think he should come in with more speed and fire the puck instead”, but stats do not lie: from the 2011-2012 season in the NHL up until now, three of the four best shootout goal scorers in the NHL are guys coming in slow. Frans Nielsen of the New York Islanders, TJ Oshie of the Washington Capitals and Patrick Kane of the Chicago Blackhawks. They almost always slow down the pace, and can fool the goalie in a floorball fashion.

The ”off-wing”
In the NHL, only 20 % of the wingers are playing with their sticks floorball style: facing the centre of the ice. This is a result of ice hockey tradition, saying that sticks facing the boards buy the wingers more time to protect the puck on break-outs from their own zone. Maybe coaches should consider to do play the floorball way though. Three of the four best goalscoring forwards in the NHL right as of today are playing what in hockey would be called their off-wing, better described as the floorball wing position. The main advantage of course: being able to one-time pucks that are played over the central line.

Me and my Canadian ice hockey friend Anthony Herrington - a scout for the Oshawa Generals and a hockey teacher -  are right now cooperating on a project we call www.icehockeyfusion.com. We will be covering the potential use of floorball in a hockey environment even more. I recommend people with more interest in these things, to take a closer look on that website for deeper information on these things.

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_{David Jansson}

The Author:
David Jansson (1980) has been the Coach of the Swiss National team since June 2015. Already as a 17-year old, he debuted in the SSL (Swedish highest division) and between years 1995-2005 he had played for 3 different clubs  - Jönköpings, Älvstranden and Pixbo. His coaching career includes two years as head coach of the swiss club Floorball Köniz (2009-2011) as well as four years by Pixbo Wallenstam. He had also worked as the sports teacher at the floorball gymnasium in Gothenburg. He lives in Kloten.