Atlanta's Offensive Defense

This post is being inspired by a statistic I read on blogs.ajc.com that talked about the Thrashers’ offensive defense.

It turns out, that the last 7 goals the Thrashers have scored have been scored by defensemen. So, I decided to start looking at why their defense was being so productive, and here’s what I found.

The first thing that I want to say is that the Thrashers are not really relying on their defense for goals as much as this statistic implies. They have scored 48 goals this season and only 16 have been from defenders.

In fact, we’re seeing more assists from the defense than goals. This means that there is a lot of passing that is happening between the defense and the offense. This also means that there is a lot of passing from defender to defender.

In the past few games, Atlanta has been scoring more from the point. But, that’s because they have been shooting more from the point.

They really haven’t been able to generate many chances down low, so they have to rely on their defenders from the point.

Sacrificing Defensive Play

One of the effects of relying more on your defense to score goals is that you sacrifice a little bit of play in the defensive zone.

For example, take the first goal the Islanders scored against Atlanta, there was only one Thrashers player in front of the net. Granted, that is a pretty big mistake, but it still shows that the Thrashers were applying pressure high in the zone to generate a turnover.

The Biggest Factor

The biggest reason the Atlanta defenders are scoring so many goals is because the offense is getting players in front of the net to screen the goalie.

That’s how the Thrashers scored their third goal against the Islanders. Roloson wasn’t to happy about the call, because he thought their was some interference. If you look at the tape, it was actually one of the Islanders’ defenders that touched Roloson, not an Atlanta player.

However, there were two Thrashers in front of the net and New York had to use two defenders to get them away from the net.

With the exception of one Atlanta player who was screening the goalie from the slap shot, they were all standing within a yard of the goal crease. This clouded the vision of Roloson and made it easier for the puck to go in the net.

Eventually, we’ll see some deflections from offensive players in front of the net, but I think that this streak signals a shift in Atlanta’s strategy. The don’t necessarily want to rely on the point, but they do want to take more shots from that general area.