Who started the dump and chase strategy in hockey?

[sawchuk1971]

during the 1942 stanley cup, jack adams, coach for the red wings, used this strategy on the leafs.....unfortunately, the wings would lose 3 straight...

usually you can say jack adams was first to use it....i read another hockey book where the author established "dump and chase" tactic was used by the bruins in the late 30s....

there has been critics who the dump and chase is an useless tactic....doug harvey, the great d-man for habs, said the dump and chase was the most stupid strategy....harvey states when you dump the puck into the zone, you are actually giving the puck away to the team.....

with the european influence in nhl and the strategy of "puck possesion", the "dump and chase" could be extinct...

 

[Big Phil]

Dump and chase will always exist, and in many ways, always has. It has been more prominent at certain times in NHL history. The 1990s was full of dumping and chasing.

I know the Soviets didn't do it in 1972, which was a little strange to Canadians. I guess they figured it was so hard to get the puck why give it up? Ironic that they never cared for practicing faceoffs for the same reason though.

 

[Theokritos]

From Ken Dryden's book "The Game":

In the 1930s, forechecking appeared. In response to the forward pass, defenses began packing five men together near the defensive blue line, making passing and puck control more difficult, poised to strike in counterattack. Offenses continued to pass ritually into the midst, usually without success, but the new forward momentum of the game carried the players into the offensive zone, often into the vicinity of unclaimed pucks. It was the beginning of forechecking. Nothing so relentless and systematic as that which would come later, yet greatly troublesome for defenders unused to its pressure, and obliged by the rules to carry the puck across the blueline, not to pass it. Moreover, forechecking represented an important discovery: offense could be played without the puck. Until then, checking had seemed a stricly defensive skill. But if offense was in part territorial, then checking in the offensive zone—forechecking—could have an offensive purpose. And if speed (without any other accommodations for it) made a puck more difficult to control, then forcing bad plays (turnovers) might become more important than making good ones yourself.
As usual, defenses readjusted, easing their pressure by lofting the puck the lenght of the ice. As usual, the pendulum returned. This time, the league intervened. To silence fans annoyed by this negative tactic, it brought in an icing rule. And the defensive pressure returned.

The rule changes Dryden is referring to are the gradual admission of the forward pass (late 1920s to early 1930s) and the introduction of the icing rule (1937).

He continues to say the following about the 1940s:

Less skilled passers, unable to penetrate a packed defense, made no pretense of passing, instead shooting the puck ahead of them to the corners, and chasing after it. It was what we later came to disparage as the dump-and-chase style, and it was in these early war years that it had its systematic beginnings.

 

[Michael Farkas]

I've seen references going back to the early 1900's of teams "lifting" the puck back and forth which drew some ire from the fans...forward passing was not liberalized as this time, so a player - out of ideas - would just sky one into other team's end and make them breakout in their forecheck/defense and hope to create a turnover like that...

That's the earliest form of dump and chase I ever recall reading about...

 

[VanIslander]

I like an aggressive forecheck strategy.

Buffalo in the late nineties had a 2-man forecheck with a dman coming in high. They were often successful at retrieving pucks or at least causing turnovers deep up ice. And when neither tactic worked, there would be 2-on-1s and 3-on-2s against that Hasek would handle effectively, with the sole defending dman responsible for cutting off the pass or clearing the crease.

The Devils 'dump-and-chase' tactic of the nineties was boring in comparison because there was very little chasing, more dump-and-clog-the-middle.

In recent years I fondly recall: Backes and Oshie in St. Louis, Callahan and Dubinsky with the Rangers, Lucic & the Bruins a couple of years ago, Zetterberg and Datsyuk with the Wings.

At times it can be bea-u-ti-ful!

 

[Scotty B]

Dump and chase will always exist, and in many ways, always has. It has been more prominent at certain times in NHL history. The 1990s was full of dumping and chasing.

I know the Soviets didn't do it in 1972, which was a little strange to Canadians. I guess they figured it was so hard to get the puck why give it up? Ironic that they never cared for practicing faceoffs for the same reason though.

Post Summit Series...I recall one Soviet player commenting ( I'm paraphrasing ) that TC 72 used dump and chase to advantage and even scored doing so. He then asked rather wistfully..." So what made it a bad play?"

Reading between the lines, it seems he felt CCCP should also employ this , on occasion, if only to create potentially lethal moments of hesitation in opposition D's mind. Yet he knew that any CCCP'er who tried it would get a one way ticket to Siberia, so to speak...

To this day, Russian hockey purists consider dump and chase akin to swearing in church. And this gives seasoned defender's the advantage. The experienced D and every one else in the building knows that a lone Russian attacker is gonna try to mesmerize him with a bit of puck wizardry, then, ideally, blow past him. By ignoring puck, focusing on guys chest and standing opponent up at the blue, that RUS attack fizzles.

YET time and time again, Russian forwards try the same damn thing, as if they enjoy butting up against a brick wall?

As if doing ' other ' is somehow un-Russian?

 

[Canadiens1958]

Loft

I've seen references going back to the early 1900's of teams "lifting" the puck back and forth which drew some ire from the fans...forward passing was not liberalized as this time, so a player - out of ideas - would just sky one into other team's end and make them breakout in their forecheck/defense and hope to create a turnover like that...

That's the earliest form of dump and chase I ever recall reading about...

Loft into the opposing zone in the late 19th century followed by a check to regain possession.