The Coyotes are not really a trap team, they use an adjusted hybrid system that catalyses its momentum out of the neutral zone, players in nearly all zone positions cheat to the neutral zone side and try to keep the play compressed in their wheelhouse the neutral zone. The Yotes do not bring the offense in flowing rushes or set transition plays, instead they try to control the territory on the ice and gap themselves as they cycle so they can generate turnovers which they immediatly transition into offense in short direct charges directly at the net and from everywhere spontaneously. Its a good tactic but easy to defeat if you use a controlled 3 transition system and carry the puck using give and gos with about 30% of your early neutral zone possesions like two feet out of your d-zone converted to long stretch passes down the middle where their game is weak. We just cant pass long from deep in our zone trying to beat them in the neutral zone because thats their wheelhouse, when we execute our first transition from deep in our zone we need to rush the puck at them hard with our d-men and then either challenge the n-zone and carry on or make that long fast pass-the important thing is to push them with a possesion move on our defense right to the neutral zone, the short passes in our defensive zone are what they are looking to target so no shortys, just lug it up and force them back the either make a stretch pass or sprint up into some give and gos. We need to limit their ability to generate neutral zone turnovers by picking off passes or by outnumbering us as we come through, they like to stack two players and pick the puck carrier with the first guy through making contact and have the trailer bust out on the n-zone down the middle, so we need to also provide a two deep offensive stack as we challenge the neutral zone, where they travel in pairs to use the legal pick play we travel in pairs with tight support. If skate the puck up with support and make our first pass decisions - not deep or mid defensive zone - but after we use a safe supported possesion skate the puck to our blueline and pressure them back into the neutral zone we will be able to transition out of our zone easily. The last thing to remember is to not pass if we can help it through the neutral zone unless it is an early neutral zone bomb breakout pass down the middle which is there all night lonw with the Yotes system. 30% of our first transitions should be stretch passes made either two feet on our side of the blueline or two feet into the neutral zone to stop them from cheating their defense up to support the neutral zone, they will try to give us the long breakout passes from deep in our d-zone to bait us, we need to use the shorter version straight up the middle to bust their neutral zone support structure. The Coyotes have an easy system to beat if you maintain possesion on your stick and limit your long passes , rushing relays by stacked players either two or three deep is the way to steamroll them right through the middle of the neutral zone and to the net, MPS will have a fieldday with his speed and size if he busts down the middle because they are so weak there.
I like your assesment of the dynamics of the Coyotes system it is bang on.
