Taylor Hall's Hat Trick: The Value of Puck Possession
Taylor Hall notched his fifth career hat trick against the Dallas Stars on Wednesday, where Hall did a great job using his puck possession ability and his play driving ability to create space and create offense effectively. It was Hall’s first career hat trick since 2013 with the Edmonton Oilers, marking 11 years since scoring a hat trick in his career, which is somewhat hard to believe given a player of his offensive caliber at that time.
At his best, Hall controls puck possession, simply put. Hall is a player who relies on cutbacks, extending possession, and not deferring to teammates right away so he can find advanced level passing lanes that other players have a hard time seeing. Part of why Hall’s offensive ability has decreased in recent years is because of multiple things:
It’s unfortunate that Hall has taken a step back, given how fun to watch he was as a playmaker early in his career, but there’s still signs he’s shown in Chicago with how he makes plays and generates offense. He hasn’t gathered a consistent role in Chicago inside their top-9, as he’s played multiple positions and hasn’t fully adapted to any role. However, when watching Chicago play, there always seems to be some degree of high end flash within Hall’s game that shows inconsistently, but it’s still there.
He still shows those high end instincts with the puck on occasion, and still showcases that tremendous passing ability on occasion as well.
We see the sequence start early in the game with notable routes from Bedard and Hall inside both the D Zone and the Neutral Zone. Hall comes underneath Bedard, and Bedard swings away into weak side space. Hall swings under and comes middle, curving his route to eventually receive the puck up the middle with space. The puck gets passed to Hall in the neutral zone where Hall has interior ice, allowing him to manipulate the middle. Connor Bedard’s slant route cuts off the second layer of NZ forecheck from Dallas, negating that impact and allowing Hall to get middle on entry, with pace and possession. Hall cuts around a flat-footed Miro Heiskanen with ease on entry, and shoots back through his stick and scores on the far side of the goalie.
On the second goal, we see the sequence start at 40 seconds into the clip with a NZ regroup and eventual dump in for an OZ FC from Chicago. Hall sees the goalie rim the puck around badly, keeping the puck in the corner of the OZ, where F1 Hall stops at the net and does a great job getting goal side position. F2 Donato receives the rimmed puck at the corner, fires the puck at the net to Hall, and Hall tips the puck home for his second goal of the game off his own rebound. Great job getting interior by Hall, stopping at the net (Key habit), and then picking up his own loose rebound to put the puck in the net.
The last goal of Hall’s, his hat trick goal, we see a 3v3 corner battle which actually favors Chicago here. Chicago has board side position higher in the zone and deeper in the zone, where they did the puck loose off the boards and Craig Smith is the retriever of the puck here. Smith gets off the wall immediately, where there’s a ton of space and room given three Dallas players were swarming in the corner battle. That opened up a ton of middle ice, where Smith makes the play cross-ice to Hall, and Hall is already set up in shooting position off the pass from Smith. Hall instantly releases off the catch, and scores for his hat trick goal of the game.