Offensive Picks & Non-Accidental Interference
A mostly illegal play you can use
In basketball, effective half-court offenses often use picks to create offensive advantages.
In the image above, the ball carrier turns and leads a defender into the path of a teammate (#35 Booker).
The same type of plays are effective in hockey, especially in the offensive zone, against man-on-man coverage.
Here are two examples from last night’s Montreal Canadiens-Seattle Kraken game.
SEA10 Matt Beniers carries the puck on a Kraken 5v4 powerplay.
MTL71 Jake Evans, the high PKer, pressures Beniers to prevent him from setting up.
As Benier turns to attack downhill, SEA29 Vince Dunn gets into Evans’ way with an offensive pick.
The only problem with that play is that Dunn crossed the elusive line. An official raises his arm and whistles the Seattle defenseman for interference.
Moments later at 4v4, the Canadiens control the puck in the Kraken zone.
MTL15 Alex Newhook cuts back, then attacks downhill.
MTL93 Ivan Demidov stops, turns and allow himself to be run into by SEA20 Eeli Tolvanen.
The ref’s arm goes up and Demidov is sent off for two minutes, too.
The sequences above left me with questions:
Is this a new refereeing standard, or are we simply seeing a temporary crackdown?
Do the rewards of using offensive picks as a regular tactic outweigh the risks of taking the odd two-minute minor?
If you play or coach at a high level, these are questions you should be asking yourself.
Oftentimes it’s preferable to beg forgiveness in the penalty box rather than ask permission on the ice, so I would err toward the side of using offensive picks too often than not enough. Just in case they don’t get called.
By the way, here’s one situation where you can set offensive picks to your heart’s content and basically never get penalized:
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