Embarrassment....to me,hockey ruined itself with these defensive “systems” that all the teams play. One team looks and plays exactly as the others. Goalies dont really play the position anymore...just get some 6-6 guy ..put ridiculous pads on him, and have him just stand there and block the net. The scoring is at the rate it was in the 1940’s...this style was started in Europe in the mid 90’s to compete with those great Soviet teams. Seems like every game..the score is 2-1..or 3-2. There is no more artistry or skill..its just a scrambled mess. The fact that a expansion team in the finals is a direct result of this defensive, robotic style....
Defensive systems have been around for a long time. What's interesting now is that they've actually become less important than ever before. Teams don't play "defensive systems" as much as they play "possession hockey" these days.
Starting around ten years ago, possession metrics became a very big part of scouting and coaching in hockey. The rationale was that the best way to play defense is to keep possession of the puck and keep it in the offensive zone as much as possible. This major transformation was solidified with the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, when Canada employed it to perfection to win the gold medal. They spent much of the tournament putting a line of Jonathan Toews, Jeff Carter and Patrick Marleau out there against the top lines of the opposing teams. These guys aren't defensive stars by any measure, but they shut down the opposition simply by maintaining possession for long stretches of time in the offensive zone.
No more artistry or skill? That's ludicrous. Just a sample of the kinds of skill and coordination NHL players have these days:
Rackell's ridiculous deflection goal
Ridiculous saucer pass on 2-on-1
Kovalchuk one-timer off the crossbar (he consistently aimed to score goals this way)
I can see why some of this is hard to appreciate. The game simply moves too fast to capture this as it actually occurs. The second link I posted above is a perfect example of this. The defenseman coming back to defend the 2-on-1 plays it perfectly, diving and stretching to cover the passing lane between the passer and the shooter. But the guy carrying the puck into the zone passes it right over him to his linemate streaking down the middle of the ice.
What's most ridiculous about that play is that the announcers didn't even realize how magnificent the pass was!
What makes this one so beautiful is that it was planned and executed perfectly -- from the positioning of the defenseman to the faceoff win to the deliberate shot wide of the goal to the perfect deflection off the crossbar on the far side of the goal.