On Friday, May 4th, 2019, David Pastrnak scored a highlight-reel goal that gave the Boston Bruins a 3-1 lead in a game over the Columbus Blue Jackets, which they’d eventually go on to win 4-3. For Boston, winning meant gaining a 3-2 lead in the series, with two chances to close the deal over Columbus. Needless to say, this goal was huge.

With under 9 minutes to go in the third period of a game in which they’re trailing, the Blue Jackets had been pouring on the pressure in an attempt to knot the game at twos. Nick Foligno receives a stretch pass up at the opposing blue line. He has help coming, but he may be able to gain a step on the nearest defender towards the net.

The Columbus Captain gains that step, and sees a lane to take the puck to the net himself. If you can do that at any point in the game, you take it. His other options are a drop pass to a heavily guarded Boone Jenner, or a pass to Cam Atkinson in the slot, who may actually have room to get a shot off.

Foligno is able to get a shot on net from in tight, and almost ties the game. Entering the frame is a pouncing Seth Jones, who saw an opportunity to jump for a chance. David Pastrnak failed to properly shoulder-check upon entering the zone, which would’ve allowed him to pick up the open attacker.

The rebound comes out and Jones thinks he can get a stick on it, hopefully for another shot. However, Brad Marchand was able to pick it up and is turning the puck up ice.

Pastrnak, after missing his check on the rush against, has picked up a pass from Marchand and now is away with four Blue Jackets caught deep in the offensive zone.

Scott Harrington has just come on the ice and was not able to gap up against the onslaughting Bruins forwards. They get to take a run at him at nearly full speed while he just glides back, waiting for them to catch up with him. In a way, he’s already done like dinner.

Take a look at this overhead angle. Pastrnak is able to walk right into the hashmarks unobstructed. At the Czech winger’s release point of his shot, Harrington has just begun to slide in an attempt to take away the passing lane. His slide direction is almost directly back towards his own goalie. This is as close as anyone got to Pastrnak before he fired in a wrister off the near post and in, and this is from a dangerous area.

In hockey, conventional wisdom for defensemen while defending a two-on-one has always been to take away the pass, and allow the goalie to take the shooter. The problem with this strategy is it allows too many dangerous shooters to walk into dangerous areas and have an open look at the net. In this day and age, taking away the pass is not enough anymore. Now, defensemen must at least apply pressure while taking away the pass as well. The most effective way to do this is to slide directly at the puck carrier. You should time it so that your armpit is headed straight for the puck. Here’s what that looks like, with Drew Doughty exemplifying this move perfectly.

After turning the puck over at his own blue line, Doughty makes an aggressive slide at Andrew Cogliano, the puck carrier. He takes away his time and space, and gets his armpit right at the puck. “He had speed coming down the wall and they kind of had one guy in the middle and one guy wide and I decided to take an attacking slide at him. If you slide kind of straight back then you’re gonna get got, but if you kind of slide at him, you give him no option but to move the puck and usually it hits you,” Doughty said. “You kind of establish right off the bat whether or not the guy with the puck is a shooter or a passer, and then from there on out you’re just kind of trying to bait him into making the pass and at the same time never letting the pass through, so really you’re just trying to give them the shot and let your goalie do the job and not make it tougher on the goalie. If you can bait them into the pass, then you intercept it.”

Doughty highlights another key part of defending against odd-man rushes that isn’t apparent in the clip above, and would have been useful for Harrington. This rush only materializes at the near blue line, but if it had manifested earlier, Doughty would’ve had to be more dynamic in his approach. Instead of slowing down and allowing the opposition to come at you with speed, which can be like jumping onto a moving train, you should take an ‘S’ route. This would allow the opposing forwards to eventually catch up to you, while you can at least maintain your speed. As Doughty says, you challenge the shooter to bait him into making the pass, and go back to cover the open man. And once you get into the high-danger areas of the ice, between the top of the circle and the hashmarks, you slide right at him, taking away his time and space.