An underserved area of coverage within hockey media is, unquestionably, tactics. That’s not necessarily because members of the media don’t understand systems. It’s more likely because it’s difficult to see exactly what teams are trying to execute between the speed of the game, broken plays, missed assignments and a host of other factors. It’s not impossible to do, however, and I’ll be doing a good amount of it throughout this season here at The Athletic.



Because of the lack of coverage, and in turn information, I periodically see people on Twitter suggest teams take a page out of soccer’s notebook, and develop unique tactics they can flesh out like a war where battles can be won before the fighting begins.



It’s a logical connection, and certainly, in theory it makes a ton of sense. To some degree, there are things a team could do, in practice, to improve their systems play. But the sport of professional hockey makes it...