What Domination Looks Like: Breaking Down Five Tone-Setting Shifts by Justin Hryckowian, Mavrik Bourque, and Oskar Bäck

They were clicking last night

Screencap from Victory+

I asked Justin Hryckowian after practice today if he looks at numbers after games much. I was thinking of things like scoring-chance differential or zone time, or even puck battles, which most teams (including the Stars) track.

Hryckowian’s response was that, while players do have video and stats available to them to go over after games, they generally don’t have to see those numbers to know whether their line did well or poorly in a given game.

It makes sense, too. These players are out there in the best league in the world, skating and shooting at top speed, hitting, battling, and even punching each other on occasion. They don’t need a chart to tell them if their line got hemmed in all night or did the hemming themselves. They can feel the shots we merely count.

The reason I asked the question to begin with was because of what his line did last night against Winnipeg. If you watched the game, you know that what the Hryckowian line did was something pretty outstanding indeed.

For those of us not talented enough to have played in the game, the numbers tell the story pretty well. In 9:16 of 5v5 ice time, the Bäck-Hryckowian-Bourque line was, to use a technical term, really stinkin’ good. Natural Stat Trick had them winning the below stats:

• 7-1 in unblocked shots

• 4-0 in shots on goal

• 8-1(!) in scoring chances

• 3-0 in high-danger shot attempts

• 93%(!!) in expected goals

Oh, and they did all that despite starting zero shifts in the offensive zone, which meant they had to work for their meal every single time, as we’ll see shortly.

That line was so good, in fact, that those numbers above compare favorably with the Robertson-Johnston-Rantanen line, which you can see on this handy dandy chart with the word “good” located suspiciously close to those six forwards:

HockeyViz.com

Granted, the Jets are not likely to be a playoff team this year, let alone a true contender. But as Colorado and Dallas have both discovered, even the best teams can wind up losing to the Vancouvers of the league on any given night. Nothing is guaranteed in this league unless you go out and make it for yourself.

Today, Gulutzan reiterated just how much that line did exactly that.

“I really liked Bourquey, Ritzy, and Bäcker,” Gulutzan said after practice today. “I thought they had a really strong game.”

When asked specifically about Mavrik Bourque’s season, Gulutzan had more praise to hand out.

“Yeah, I thought he was probably our best player last night, him or Otts, for sure,” Gulutzan said. “Just getting stronger and stronger, more comfortable, more confident. You can see his talent coming out, and confidence is a big thing. I think it was littered with chances on the tape, for him. Just physical play, finishing his checks. I think he’s one of the guys, certainly a top three or four guy for us, that’s embraced playing a harder, heavier brand of hockey, and it’s helped his game.”

So today, I spent what turned into a few hours looking at that line’s shifts to see what that sort of utter domination looks like in concentrated form. Below, I’ve taken their first five shifts of last night’s game and gone through them, trying to point out a handful of the many things they did so very well.

It’s a lot of video and images, but I think it tells the story pretty well: this trio can defend, create, and attack with ferocity. They’ve got the strength to win puck battles anywhere on the ice, the speed to get to good spots before the defense can solidify, and the instincts and hockey IQ to create scoring chances in buckets, as they did last night.

So, let’s get to the tape.

Shift #1 - Territorial Dominance

Let’s start with the first shift of the game, when Gulutzan opted to start the reunited trio against the Vilardi/Lowry/Perfetti line for the Jets. Winnipeg wins the opening draw and brings it into the Stars’ zone, and attempts to go behind the net and bump the puck up to the point with bodies in front, but they won’t succeed.

There are two separate plays by Oskar Bäck (#10 in green) on this shift that show you just how smart his reads are. The first one comes in the defensive zone, when Lowry (#17 white) carries the puck behind the net.

Hryckowian is harassing Lowry, but Lundkvist comes over to try to turn the puck over. Lowry is a very large man, however, and that proves to be tough. Lowry will hold off Lundkvist’s check and manage to recover the puck just below the goal line.

But Bäck has already made the right read here. He can see Lowry will only have time to make a quick pass before Lundkvist gets his stick back on Lowry, so Bäck closes on the puck and cuts off the pass with stick and skates turned.

Now the Stars have possession, and Bäck will chip the puck up to Hryckowian and Bourque, who will carry it into the offensive zone and start the cycle. Hryckowian is the first one down low (F1), and he fights hard for the puck.

Bourque comes next (F2), and he also ensures the puck has to keep getting moved, even though he isn’t able to grab it. But this is where Bäck makes another great read, as he’s anticipated the puck doing just what it does, splitting between Lowry and Vilardi to win the puck, then send it around behind the net

Bäck’s read has been so good, in fact, he ends up with a moment and some space, which he uses smartly, getting his head up and finding Hryckowian in the corner, where he fires a pass hard enough to get through.

Hryckowian passes to Bourque in the slot while Bäck gets right to the netfront. The Jets close on Bourque quickly enough to prevent a shot, though.

Dallas will fall back to neutral and regroup, but with possession of the puck. It’s a great, tone-setting shift by the third line where they turned good defense and anticipation in the defensive end into a good shift in the offensive zone. The top line will come over the boards, and Johnston will immediately head into the offensive zone on a shift that leads to Esa Lindell’s early scoring chance.

When people ask me why Oskar Bäck hasn’t been one of the players receiving healthy scratches this year, these are the sorts of shifts I think about. He’s in the exact right spot, at the right time, in both ends. In soccer terms, you might call his work on this shift good link-up play. He’s not the most dangerous player on the line, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t make his line more dangerous. Hockey IQ will out.

Shift #2 - Icing doesn’t matter

The trio’s second shift was more straightforward: after icing the puck midway into their shift, the trio will still manage to get the puck into the offensive zone and go to work, like always. Let’s pick up from the icing faceoff:

Hryckowian wins the draw, and Lindell has a clearance blocked by the referee. He regains the puck and flips it out quickly, where Hryckowian was already streaking. The flip was accurate, and Hryckowian collects it and skates before pulling up at the blue line. Bourque here decides not to go to the bench and leave Hryckowian to dump the puck in, but instead keep working to ensure they keep possession despite being 70 seconds into his shift.

Bourque pulls up along the wall to avoid getting closed down in the corner as Bäck joins the group,

Bourque now makes the smart play to send the puck down low for Hryckowian as he goes off for a change to get a fresh forward on. But as he does so often, Oskar Bäck manages to win the puck along the boards from Neal Pionk, preventing Winnipeg from exiting out that side and trapping two Stars forwards down low. Hryckowian is able to go for a change as Blackwell arrives (he hopped on for Bourque), and by the time Winnipeg gets the puck, Dallas is completely ready for their attempts at transition, with a fresh Duchene also on the ice.

It’s hard work, and while it doesn’t result in a scoring chance (though of course they will get plenty of those later), it does count as another very positive shift.

Shift #3 - Cleanup Crew

After the Stars score a power play goal (off a penalty drawn by Mavrik Bourque battling at the netfront, by the way), Gulutzan sends the QueBäck line back out there.

This is a longer one, but watch Oskar Bäck again. It’s an eventful shift for him, starting with this play where Thomas Harley needs someone to pass to, and Bäck comes down low to make himself an option.

Bäck tries to hit Hryckowian at the blue line to trap three Winnipeg forwards, but Vilardi cuts down the pass (I believe he knocked it out of the air) smartly, forcing Hryckowian to come in on the backcheck to prevent a dangerous scoring chance, which he’s able to do because he wasn’t standing still at the blue line, but rather reading the play, poised to come help if needed, as he is.

Hryckowian’s hard work and Harley’s stick will combine to turn the puck back over for Dallas without a shot, and Lundkvist will settle things down behind his net. Eventually (0:33 mark of the above clip), you’ll see Harley get the puck along the wall and feed it to Hryckowian at the far blue line, who then makes a nifty play and skates back south to tap the puck along the wall, creating a 2-on-1 for Hryckowian and Bäck, who were rushing to begin with.

Bäck reaches out to backhand the puck over to a wide-open Bourque, but Morrissey reads the danger just in time and blocks the pass for a Grade-A scoring chance.

Finally, after Winnipeg has come back down the ice again, you’ll see all three forwards a minute into their shifts, still defending diligently. Kyle Capobianco eventually turns over the puck for Oskar Bäck, who takes it up along the wall and gets it up the boards for Bourque, who sends it along so they can change.

For Bäck, it’s a wild ride. He has two passes blocked that could have been scoring chances, but he only got those pucks to begin with by making good, smart reads. And he and his line are more than able to win the shift anyway, with a brilliant bit of help from Capobianco, who turns into an F1 despite being a defenseman on this shift, allowing everyone to change as needed by applying smart pressure up the ice.

The Stars would build on the momentum by scoring their second goal of the game on the following shift, thanks to Benn, Erne, and Hyry capitalizing on an Iafallo turnover.

Shift #4 - Scoring chances, Ahoy

This next shift would showcase just how dangerous Bourque can be with the puck these days.

It starts with a quick transition play in neutral, with Bourque feeding Hryckowian (waiting at the far blue line) for what turns into a give-and-go.

You’ll have noticed how Hryckowian’s stick was poking out there, playing the puck back to Bourque even as he’s being half sat-on.

Bourque takes the puck and tries to whip it to the netfront, where Bäck has gone (of course). It bounces off a skate instead, and Winnipeg ends up trying to clear out around the other end, so the line has work to do to get the puck back.

This time, Thomas Harley (55 green) joins the fray, pinching down low to grab the puck.

He’ll do so and quickly spy Bourque, who takes the pass and fires a puck on net from the faceoff dot:

The shot won’t pay off, and Bourque will end up accidentally clearing it as he recovers the puck behind the net. But if this puck hadn’t bounced off one of the bodies in front, I think Bourque hits Hryckowian in the high slot here for a great scoring chance:

The shift will end, somehow, right back in the offensive zone, as Lundkvist skates back down and gets the puck back up the boards quickly where Bourque and Hryckowian head right back to work up the ice:

That will all end in Bourque fixing his prior mistake, as he’ll connect with Hryckowian from behind the goal line this time for a shot that Hryckowian absolutely could have scored on:

The line is just plain cooking by this point, as you’ll see on their next shift.

Shift #5 - *Ping*

Once again, Bourque breaks the puck out with a give-and-go play, outright demanding the puck back from Harley in neutral before trying an optimistic pass to Hryckowian at the back post that doesn’t quite connect. But that won’t be a problem for this group.

After that initial pass, the Stars need to get the puck back, and Bäck will do so, winning it and holding off the Very Big Dylan Samberg along the boards before feeding it to Bourque.

And then, Bourque will make a gorgeous, no-look pass to Hryckowian that probably gets converted if not for a dynamite stick from Jonathan Toews:

(If you watch closely, you’ll see that Hryckowian actually whacks the puck on net out of midair, where Toews had poked it. If that had gone in, it would have been truly something.)

But would you believe that chance wouldn’t even be the best one of that shift? But in order for us to get to the good part, we should stop and appreciate this outstanding read and play from Kyle Capobianco, who swings over underneath Harley after #55 steps up on Brad Lambert but gets mostly beaten.

We said “mostly” for a reason, however. Because this is where defense partners look out for each other. Capobianco is in position to come over and prevent the 2-on-1 by reading Harley’s step-up, which has separated Lambert just enough from the puck to allow Capobianco to come over and close it down along the wall:

That whack gets the puck back into the neutral zone, where a relieved Harley then gets it along where Hryckowian rips it away from any would-be Jets puck-takers, carrying it up with his line:

We’re heavy on pictures already, so I trust you’re watching the clip itself, too. Hryckowian pulls up in the O-zone, then sends it low for (you guessed it) Bäck to win along the wall, which he does once again.

Ah, what the hey, let’s watch this part of the shift in isolation:

Bäck fends off Pionk with relative ease despite stumbling into the boards, then gets it up to Hryckowian. And here, note the small bit of time Hryckowian takes holding the puck, which forces Lambert (#93 white) to close him down. That means Lambert can’t immediately pressure the point, where Heiskanen now has the puck with plenty of space. He draws Lambert to him, then bumps the puck up to a waiting Miro Heiskanen, just out of frame to the right:

Here you can see how just that extra couple of steps Lambert took to close on Hryckowian allowed Heiskanen to walk down and fire the puck from a more dangerous spot:

Of course, Heiskanen hits the crossbar with a wicked shot. The puck bounces out to Lindell, who swats a backhand right back on net, but Hellebuyck has just enough time to get back to his post, and the Jets get off the hook:

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No line is this utterly dominant all year, or even all game (most times). But when you really watch and re-watch how much these three players battled for position, pucks, and space last night, you can’t help but marvel at just how incredible the chemistry is among three players who all got some healthy scratches (or even a lot of AHL time) last year. This is what taking a step forward looks like, in triplicate.

Justin Hryckowian has become a reliable middle-six NHL center in his rookie season thanks to an unbelievable level of willpower, skill, and instincts.

Mavrik Bourque has put together all the qualities that made him a first-round draft pick to begin with and turned into a forward who can play with almost any center and make them better as a result.

Oskar Bäck is the most defensively oriented of the three forwards, but the things that make him so good in his own zone can also contribute to great scoring chance creation at the other end, particularly in a cycle-focused offensive system.

Dallas has so many injured players right now that they’re currently using the same wire rolling racks in the center of the room that they usually only employ during training camp, when they have more bodies than dressing room stalls. But the Stars’ third line, for however long they stay back together, is proof that really good things are often borne out of necessity.

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I didn’t go over that line’s sixth and final shift of the first period, but I’ll include it below without commentary. If you feel inclined to watch it, I’d recommend focusing exclusively on any member of the trio for the whole shift, just to see how they go about their business both with and away from the puck.

If you do that, I can guarantee you’ll find a little bit more with each re-watch. Because that’s the thing about great hockey: it only gets better the more times you see it.