Welcome to 5 Insights and Observations. Every week, I’ll use this space to highlight teams, players, storylines and general musings around the NHL.
This week we look at defensive zone coverage, an unexpected goal, the salary cap, signing players after one season in the NHL and opening festivities. Hockey is back!
A new defensive structure is sweeping the NHL
The NHL is a copycat league, and when teams win, others tend to take notice and ask how they did it. In the case of last year's Stanley Cup Champion Vegas Golden Knights, something that has caught the eye of teams around the league is the zone defense they deploy.