NLL Insider

Last week I talked about the macro systems that most teams use in today’s NLL. This week I’m going to begin discussing some of the micro systems that operate within the overlaid macro system templates.

Let’s start with the man-short defense (called the “short man” by most Canadian box players) or man-down defense (called MDD by most American field players). Players and coaches in the hybrid NLL use either terminology.

Power plays (PP’s in Canadian lingo) or extra-man offence (EMO in American terms) are traditionally set up with a point man at the top, a left- and a right-handed shooter and a left- and right-handed crease man. MDD formations are set up to counter this setup.

The two most commonly used short-man setups are the “box’ and the “diamond.” The box setup uses two defenders to split the point man and both shooters and has two defenders at the back virtually locking off the two crease men. The diamond has one defender focusing on the point man, two defenders checking the shooters and the last defender splitting the two crease men.

The box formation is primarily used when a power play has outstanding crease men and you want to force the opposition to shoot the ball from either the point or one of the two shooter spots. The diamond is best used when you want to take away great outside shooters from the point or shooter and force the ball to the creases. The box setup is the most passive of the MDD’s and tries not to get caught in too much rotation as the ball moves around.

The diamond short-man is designed to rotate from a diamond formation to a box formation as the ball moves from point to shooter to crease – half rotation when the ball moves to shooter and full rotation to a box when the ball goes to crease. It tends to be more aggressive than the box by placing immediate pressure on the point man. But with an increase in aggression also comes an increased liability if the ball is moved quickly by the EMO.

Another commonly used MDD is the “split box.” In this defense, one of the two defenders at the top of the box has responsibility for both the point man and one of the shooters while the other defender in the top of the box is responsible for the remaining shooter. The Toronto Rock utilizes this short man D quite a bit and they have the consummate split man in Jim Veltman. His big wingspan and uncanny sense of where the ball is going makes this MDD very effective against certain PP’s.

Take, for example, if John Grant Jr. was playing a shooter spot on the Rochester PP, you could lock him off with one of your defenders and have a defender like Veltman (not that there’s too any of him around) split the opposite shooter and the point. Employing this defense also gives your goalie a good idea of where the shots are most likely to come from allowing him more setup time.

Now let’s look at a highly aggressive short man – the “jump box.” This short man starts in a passive box. As the ball moves from point to shooter and back again, one of the top defenders will rush the point man while the remaining three defenders rotate quickly to take away the adjacent passing lanes. This D is primarily used in situations where the shot clock is winding down or in situations where the defending team needs to get the ball back in a hurry.

There are, of course, some less traditional PP sets that have to be considered. Quite often teams will put the point man in the middle of a box MDD rather than at the point. Jeff Dowling (currently with the Buffalo Bandits organization) designed an offset inverted Y defense to counteract this setup. One defender would split the top two in the box, a second defender would split the middle man and a shooter and the back two defenders in the Y would lock off the creases.

Finally, there are also times when your team finds itself two men down. How do you defend then? Mostly with a hope and a prayer, given the precision of NLL sharpshooters.

NLL EMO’s normally play 4 on 3 using their 5^th man as a safety to prevent being scored against on a turnover. The MDD simply plays some form of triangle, either passive or rotating against the 4 man PP.

So, now you have knowledge of a pretty good repertoire of man down or short man D’s. When you’re watching your next game, try to identify which MDD’s are being used.

Beware though, because most teams will be switching defenses regularly throughout the game and even within the same penalty kill. Would you use the same short-man set that your team is using or would you do something different? Enjoy that armchair coaching. After all, there’s not much risk of failure in the old second-guessing game.

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