September 22, 2023 by Ryan Lotsberg

Evander Kane told the media that the Edmonton Oilers will be implementing new neutral zone and defensive zone strategies for the upcoming season when speaking on Wednesday. Head coach Jay Woodcroft started implementing a new neutral zone strategy during the first on-ice session for the team on Thursday.

As the guys on the Got ‘Yer Back podcast showed this morning, Woodcroft was implementing a 1-1-3 neutral zone system. That means that one forward pressures the puck in the offensive zone and tries to force the puck to one side of the ice, another forward stays in the middle of the ice to break up passes through the middle of the ice or to trap the puck carrier in the neutral zone, and the other three players wait at the defensive blueline. The two defencemen and the third forward are there to force dump-ins and to retrieve said dump-ins. 

It’s a passive forechecking system, but the advantage of it is that it is designed to reduce scoring chances allowed on the rush. The Oilers need to allow fewer goals this season, and implementing a 1-1-3 neutral zone system is a simple step to take towards that goal. Whether they run this system all the time remains to be seen, but we can expect to see it quite often.

Woodcroft ran the 1-1-3 drills with both groups that skated yesterday, which implies that the team wants to have the Bakersfield Condors running the same system so that when players are recalled, they are up to speed on the systems being utilized.

The thing that excites me most about this development is that Woodcroft is implementing new systems on day one of camp. Doing this work earlier in camp means that the players will be more familiar with it by the time the season starts. That increases the odds of the players being able to execute the new system at a high level.

The fact that the team has been doing captain’s skates since September 5 made it easier for Woodcroft to start teaching systems on day one. Nobody is shaking the cobwebs out or shaking the rust off. The players have all said their hellos and shared their stories from the summer. They came to this training camp ready to focus, and the focus is on details from day one. That bodes well for a team with Stanley Cup aspirations.

Related: Oilers Training Camp 2023: Updates from Day One