Mattias Ekholm's Goal in Game 2: What Stood Out?
Mattias Ekholm is one of Edmonton's most unlikely candidates to not only join the rush and be a threat, but to also score off an odd-man rush scenario. In Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final, Ekholm's goal put Edmonton up 1-0 at the time, which put Edmonton in a favorable position through the first period. However, there were multiple things noticeable inside the sequence that we'll get to later.
Ekholm is traditionally known as a shutdown style defenseman, who can read line rush against effectively and manage ice so well with gap closure. His rangy reach and stickwork also helps him control a large radius of space defensively, as he is always a presence defending 1v1 and utilizing his physical play. There's a lot of noticeable details that Ekholm thrives at defensively, but offensively he isn't relied upon that much. There's not too much Ekholm drives play with offensively, as he does bring an effective slapshot and windup, but he isn't necessarily the most deceptive or manipulative of Oilers defenders at the offensive blue line.
What's first noticeable inside the sequence here is the play down low near the corner. It's a 1v1 battle near the back wall with both Oilers defenders collapsing on the play, and Connor McDavid eventually retrieves this puck in the corner in an unfavorable setting. McDavid has his back to the play, he isn't able to retrieve the puck with speed, he has forecheck pressure coming down on him, and he is forced to make a play while getting double teamed. McDavid does an excellent job finding an activating Mattias Ekholm headed into space moving up ice, utilizing a backhand pass to find Ekholm through a seam.
Ekholm has leverage right away in this scenario for multiple reasons:
The ideal scenario is that Ekholm could attack inside the dots and make this a 1v1. However, most notably, Gustav Forsling has elite shutdown qualities that can mitigate rush offense. Instead, Ekholm veers outside the dots on entry with Leon Draisaitl to create a 2v1, where Draisaitl now has the ability to be a shot threat if the case may be. Ekholm, forced to shoot inside the entry now with backpressure coming on him hard, uses a wrist shot to beat Sergei Bobrovsky five hole. Ekholm doesn't tend to naturally use his wrist shot, but did a great job releasing quickly here and realizing he needed to get a shot off quickly.
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This also takes a lot of pressure off McDavid in this scenario here, where McDavid is always the focal point of the attack when he is on the ice. If McDavid is less of a threat when on the ice and other threats can be utilized, this allows Edmonton to take advantage of situations like these where McDavid ended up being double teamed. McDavid got double teamed, which opened up that space and that lane for Ekholm to be able to attack through. This entire situation becomes so much easier for Edmonton in general, because that double team now forced the odd-man rush in Edmonton's favor back the other way.
Again, Ekholm is most notable for his shutdown qualities, negating his offensive impact mostly. Florida isn't going to be keyed on him as an offensive threat or activation threat, which actually makes Ekholm the threat in this scenario ironically. Edmonton also likes to play more of a hybrid defensive zone coverage style and D2 is able to be a threat when necessary when attacking up the middle on breakout situations, depending on the space, so that gave more leeway for Ekholm to find space through the middle here.
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