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Sunday, February 10
Updated: February 11, 1:24 PM ET

The strategies and subtleties of coaching in the NHL

By Jim Schoenfeld
Special to ESPN.com

Line changes

There is sort of a game of chess that goes on between the coaches when you have a game where you're trying to match lines.

The home team gets to make the last line change. The road team has to put its five players on the ice, then the home team coach looks at the players the visitor put on and puts out the players he wants to match up against them. During the course of the shift, the visiting team may change on the fly -- that is, they don't wait for a whistle. They may change as soon as the puck clears the defensive zone to put the five guys they want against the home team lineup.

There is sort of a game of chess that goes on between the coaches when you have a game where you're trying to match lines. Not every game is like that. Sometimes the matchup that Team A wants is the same matchup that Team B wants, so the game has a flow and you don't have to worry about changing on the fly.

But by and large, you'll find there are one of two trains of thoughts:

Matchups that are desired by either coach will play strengths against strengths -- the best offensive players against each other -- if both coaches feel their offensive players have an edge, meaning they're more reliable defensively and they can get the job done offensively.

The other, and more usual train of thought, is to play defensive specialists against the offensive specialists to try and shut them down.

Matching lines: Pros and cons
The pros: When you're matching lines, you are trying to take a team's strength and defeat them by targeting it. I have five great defensive players and I'm playing them against the other team's five best offensive players. If the other team doesn't have much offense left after those top five players, by shutting down their best offensive people, I'm figuring the rest of my team, which includes my best offensive players, can win us the hockey game. This, of course, is easier to do if you're the home team and have the last line change.

The cons: You can sometimes take your offensive people out of the flow of the game. If I'm matching up my defensive specialists against my opponent's offensive line, and every time they go on the ice, I'm pulling my offensive guys off to put defensive people on, I can disrupt the flow for my offensive people. That sometimes can take them out of the game. What you'll see a coach do sometimes is, if he wants the defensive vs. offensive matchup, but has an offensive zone faceoff, he'll leave his offensive guys on the ice regardless of what the matchup is.

Shifts: When to say when
If a forward is working hard, and he's on the forecheck, and he's mucking and grinding, and he's attacking the puck, if he can give you 40-45 seconds of a hard shift, that's enough. After that it becomes counterproductive; he may become tired and start making mistakes. Now there are certain players, like Mario Lemieux and Joe Sakic and Jaromir Jagr, who have the stamina and have the ability to think the game through so they're not expending a lot energy until there is a right moment for the burst; they can take longer shifts. But I would say for 80 to 90 percent of your team, you're going to get the most efficiency out of their shift if they give you 40-45 seconds hard and change. Now you don't get whistles every 40-45 seconds, so that's why you have to change on the fly.

If one guy overstays his shift, then he's disrupted the lines and it snowballs. So that's why it's very important for players to stay within the team concept as far as line changes and ice time.

To change on the fly, the left winger on the bench is focused on the left winger on the ice. The center on the bench is watching the center on the ice. So when that player comes to the bench and calls out his position, you can right away make the substitution without a stoppage in play.

Shift length: When I coached, I had one of the members of the training staff hold a stop watch. He would call out 30 seconds, 35, 40. But sometimes you get players who are a little selfish, or players who aren't working hard, and they're on the ice for 55 or 60 seconds. There are some players who can extend their shifts and still be effective. And you know the ones who can't. If they all play hard for their 40-45 seconds, they're going to get the same amount of ice time. But if one guy overstays his shift, then he's disrupted the lines and it snowballs. So that's why it's very important for players to stay within the team concept as far as line changes and ice time.

When to change: Sometimes the puck will be dumped in and all five players will change on the fly. You never really want a player to change when the puck is in transition from offense to defense and the other team is attacking. Even if you're spent, you've got to suck it up and stay on the ice to get the job done defensively and clear the zone. Then you make you're line change. If they can't change five at a time, a line will change three at a time when they can, and the defense will change two at a time when they can.

Juggling lines ... when offense isn't producing
Sometimes a change is as good as a rest during the game. So rather than benching a player or demoting him, you can change lines up.

Say your first line is struggling -- you're on the road and your top line is having a hard time playing against the matchup. But you know that your right winger, who is your best scorer, would have an easier time playing against the opponent's second unit of defensemen because their left D is slow in turning to the outside. You might take your right winger and move him to the second line, so you balance your scoring a little bit instead of stacking it on the first line. Now, the opposing coach needs decide if he uses his two best defensemen against the second line, will it afford my first-line center and left winger more opportunities. Or, he may keep the matchup and hope his second set of D can get the job done against the right wing. That's the chess game. Sometimes you can make the right decision and still have it come out wrong because it always comes down to execution.

Injuries
There are two things you can do when you've lost a forward to an injury.

You can double shift a player. Say you have a center on the second line who is your best player that night, he may not be your best player all the time, but he's having himself a game, and the fourth-line center gets injured. You play your first line, then your good center is in the second rotation, you have your third line, then you play that same center in the fourth rotation. He ends up playing every other shift.

You can juggle lines. One time it may be that good center, another time it may be a different center.

With TV timeouts, you'd have to have a lot of injuries over the course of a game before you have trouble fitting people in. You can really coach a game in the National Hockey League with nine forwards very easily. There are time outs, there are enough stall tactics if your players a really spent. But short term, players can withstand it any way. You would need four forwards injured early in the game before it would become a problem. Although it does become a problem if it's your best players who are injured, and that's not a matter of numbers, it's skill level that is leaving your team.

With defensemen, it is a little more precarious if you lose two of them. But again, players all play better when they get more ice time, to a degree. That doesn't mean you can play a guy 35 minutes a game. The player that is used to playing 18 minutes may have a whale of a game if someone is injured and he plays 22 minutes, because he's more into the flow.

So if you go from six to five defenseman, obviously you can't change in pairs anymore if you're using everyone, so you have to rotate them. Sometimes you'll keep one pair together and rotate the other three. Sometimes you'll just mix all five. Then, sometimes a guy will play right side, sometims he'll play the left. Sometimes he's with his regular partner, sometimes he's not.

There are decisions that are made during the game and they're made in regard to the matchup that you're looking for and sometimes the score of the game. You might be in a situation where you're trailing by tow goals and you might go down to four defensemen to get your best offensive people on the ice. So even though you lost only one defenseman, you're going to sit your fifth guy and go with four in the last 10 minutes. That's called shortening the bench. Because you want a better chance to score two goals and the guy who is a great defensive defenseman doesn't afford you that opportunity.

If more than one defenseman is injured: It depends on the time of the game. If it's late in the game, you can suck it up and go with four. The danger there is: what if one of those fours get in a fight and he has to serve a five minute major? Now you're down to three. Most teams have forwards who are capable -- short term -- of playing some defense. So you may have to pull a forward and put him back on the blue line.

Communication

With the great players, (communication is) very subtle. They'll come to the bench, get their rest, then they'll stand up when they're ready to go without saying anything. Or maybe they'll give a nod to the assistant. You'll see it with the better players, the players who have to be on the ice for you to win the hockey game.

There is always a line of communication between the coaches and the players, especially the better players, because your better players are the ones who will log more ice time. There are times when a coach will stay in contact with him -- you let me know when you're ready to go, tonight's a night that we have to have the game, and if you're a forward, I'm looking to get you 24-25 minutes of ice time. If you're a defenseman it might be up to 30 minutes of ice time. So you have to be in constant communication with that player.

With the great players, it's very subtle. They'll come to the bench, get their rest, then they'll stand up when they're ready to go without saying anything. Or maybe they'll give a nod to the assistant. You'll see it with the better players, the players who have to be on the ice for you to win the hockey game. Make no mistake -- you have a much better chance of winning when your better players are on the ice.

You think that would be understood -- until a team has three or four players injured and goes into a losing streak. If it's three or four of its better players, then it's not the same hockey team.

Shortening the bench
Shortening the bench is using less players to get the job done. You're lineup is comprised of two goaltenders, six defensemen and 12 forwards. That gives you four lines and three sets of defensemen.

With a lead: Say you're winning by two goals with five or six minutes left in the period, you don't have a great deal of confidence in your fifth and sixth defensemen. You may shorten the bench and go with your top four, even if you have to break pairs up, to make sure you get out of that period with your two-goal lead.

When trailing: Conversely, if you're trailing by two goals at the end of the period, you'll put your four best offensive defensemen on the ice. The same thing goes with the forwards. You want the most reliable people on when you're winning and your best offensive people on when you're losing. Sometimes it will be the last 10 minutes, sometimes it's the entire third period. If you're trailing 3-0, there's no sense keeping your defensive specialists on the ice, they aren't going to get the job done for you offensively.

Some teams will shorten the bench to three lines, meaning you play your nine best offensive players. That doesn't necessarily mean keeping the line combinations together, because some teams have four well-balanced lines.

Other situations: So you can shorten it when you're trailing, shorten it when your leading, and you can shorten it when the game is getting physical. Some players are better in high-traffic games than others. You can shorten it when you have a flowing game if you've got some players who skate better.

There are a lot of different variables. It's the coaches job to look at the lineup and figure out who is having a game for themselves and get him ice time. You can't just play the guy with the best stats and say he's my best player when he's been a dog that night. This goes on all the time.

11 forwards and 7 defensemen
You go with 11 and seven when you know that there is no way you're going to use your 12th forward. For instance, say your 12th forward is your heavyweight and you're playing against as team that doesn't have a heavyweight. There is really no need to have your heavyweight in the lineup because he's not going to see quality ice time. Or, it might be a situation where the referee for that game has a sharper eye for the rough-and-tumble players. So you look and say you really can't afford to take any penalties tonight and I know that even if this guy throws a clean check, he's probably going to get called for it.

You might put in a seventh defenseman who is poor defensively, but has a great shot from the point and you'll use him on the power play. Or maybe you've got one who's been hurt, but he's playing and trying to gut it out. You may dress a seventh defenseman to cover for him because the other team may have three well balanced offensive lines and it would be too much of a workload if you go down to five with an injury or four if someone gets thrown out of the game.

Special teams
Penalty killing: You need more than two sets of penalty killing forwards. Most teams now use their better offensive players for both penalty killing and power play situations. Joe Sakic will do both. Jaromir Jagr will do both. Peter Bondra will do both. Most coaches have eight forward who they think are their top penalty killers. If one of those happens to be on the ice when the penalty is called, or is the one who had the penalty called against him, you still have at least three other pairs to get you through it. Short-term, you can get it done with two pair of penalty killers up front.

Power play: Many times on the power play you want to start with your second unit, especially if you're the home team and the other team has sent out its best penalty killers. So while you're top unit is resting, your second unit, you hope, is wearing down the other team's four best defensive people. When they make their change to their second set of penalty killers, you respond by sending out your strength. That's when you see goals scored in the last 30 seconds of a power play. It isn't always in your best interest to throw your best people on the ice to start every power play.

Overtime: How does the thought process change?
When you're 4-on-4, I really like to go man-on-man, when your two forwards are making sure they're not being beaten up the ice in transition by the other team's defensemen and your defensemen are handling the two forwards.

Defense: Generally in the game, the forwards are bringing the puck in on the D and the defensive forwards are picking up the opposing defensemen and preventing them from getting into the rush. I think it's more critical when you're playing 4-on-4 to make sure you establish that coverage. It will breakdown, but if you're doing your job well it won't as often.

Offense: You're trying to break that down and trying to create and odd-man situation. Once Defenseman A passes the puck up to his forwards, either defenseman should jump up and try to join the rush, causing a three-on-two rush against the other team's defensemen. It's something you try to do the entire game -- outnumber your opponent.

Goalies

I don't think that you want to, if you can avoid it -- and this is me -- you don't want to pull your goaltender during the game. That's a long skate from the net to the bench. When they're having a bad night, they're feeling bad to begin with.

I think you have to know the mentality of your goaltenders. Goaltender react differently to being pulled in a game. I don't think it's something you want to get in the habit of. You always want your players to want the opportunity to fight through any adversity. So if you're quick on the trigger and you're always pulling goalies, you have to know that the guy you pull is angry that he's pulled and he will have the conviction that the next time he's in the net he's going to play so well, you wont' have the opportunity to pull him. If you have a goaltender who is more feint-hearted, that's a bad habit to get into as a coach.

You might have a situation where your goaltender has been great. Say you have three games and he's been sensational and in the first period of your fourth game he lets in a couple of stinkers. If you're going to pull him, you wait until the end of the period. You're hoping they don't score that third goal. In the long run, he knows you've respected him, the team knows you've respected him.

I don't think that you want to, if you can avoid it -- and this is me -- you don't want to pull your goaltender during the game. That's a long skate from the net to the bench. When they're having a bad night, they're feeling bad to begin with. But if you have a goaltender who is shirking his duties in practice, one that hasn't been fighting through difficult situations and he's having a bad game, then maybe he needs that as a wake-up call.

Sometimes you'll pull a goaltender to get your team's attention. Sometimes a goalie will be standing on his head and his teammates are standing around watching him, and you're trailing 2-0 at the end of the first period and you think, "I've got to wake these guys up. I'm not going to allow our goalie to carry the burden the rest of the night. Theses guys are going to have to play hockey." That happens less because winning games are so important; if you're goaltender is having a night, you're going to leave him in.

Jim Schoenfeld, a former NHL player and coach, is an analyst for ESPN.

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