The Price Of Net Front Admission

Kraken forward Mason Marchment got a face-shattering reminder last December that merely talking about establishing a “net front presence” in hockey is far easier than doing it.

Playing for the Dallas Stars, the 6-foot-5, 212-pound Marchment was standing in front of the Minnesota Wild net when an incoming blast from teammate Evgenii Dadonov deflected off a stick and straight into his face. Marchment’s nose was broken and he sustained several additional facial fractures but couldn’t even have surgery to repair it for a week because the swelling was so bad.

“I couldn’t eat any solid food for two months,” Marchment said.

Physical pain is often the price of admission for going to an NHL opponent’s net front, where the main inflictors of hurt aren’t always 230-pound defenders trying to tattoo the name of their stick on your back. Players such as Marchment wear special padding on their backs to limit damage from crosschecks that knock them off their feet. But those brave enough to try some net front action say it’s the incoming rubber fired at upwards of 100 miles per hour that is often the most hazardous part of the trade.

“I’ve had a couple of broken bones,” Kraken forward Jaden Schwartz said. “It’s usually just taking pucks where there aren’t any pads – like your fingers, or your ankles.”

But that doesn’t stop players who make their living going to the net, namely because that’s the area of highest danger to shoot from. Get to a puck in that area, the theory goes, the opposing goalie has less time to react to your shot. Also, get in front of a goalie without an incoming puck shattering your face and there’s a better chance of disrupting his vision enough that he can’t make the stop.

The Kraken would like to see more of their players paying the price Schwartz terms the “bumps and bruises” of net front work. Schwartz led the team with 26 goals last season – 19 of them from higher danger bet front areas -- and scored his second of this campaign Tuesday night against the Capitals by also hanging around near the net and one-timing a puck that had caromed off the end boards right on to his stick.

New general manager Jason Botterill and head coach Lane Lambert have made a bigger net front presence a top priority for a Kraken squad known more for taking perimeter shots in recent seasons.

That’s one reason they traded for Marchment, whose 22 goals with Dallas last season came in only 62 games after missing the two months with his facial injury. Marchment knows some players are hesitant to go to the net even though it can lead to big things.

“There’s just less space there,” Marchment said. “It’s hard to find holes and get easy ice. But that’s where the goals are. They’re right in front of the net with tips and rebounds and stuff like that. So, that’s kind of a staple of my game – getting there and creating chances, getting a couple of rebounds and tipping pucks in.”

And the Kraken’s net front emphasis has already paid off during a 3-2-2 start.

According to Natural Stat Trick, the Kraken ranked 21st of 32 teams last season in goals scored from so-called “high danger” areas near the net. This season, they are tied for fourth highest.

Even Jared McCann, a player known largely for scoring on his lethal shot from any distance, has collected all three of his goals this season from hard work at close range. His overtime winner against Vegas two weekends ago saw McCann score on a net front rebound after first getting crosschecked to the ice by goaltender Adin Hill and then hooked off his feet by forward Mitch Marner as he was firing the puck home.

McCann, just like teammates Marchment and Schwartz, said judging incoming pucks is the hardest part of net front work.

“I think it’s just predicting where the puck is going to be – or controlling where the puck’s going to land,” he said. “That’s the biggest thing. (Marchment) is one of the best I’ve ever seen because he’s got great hand-eye coordination. Obviously, he’s got a big body and is just hard to move out of the way.

“But yeah, it’s just predicting where the puck is going to be,” he added. “Obviously, it’s tough because you don’t really know where it’s going to go.”

Schwartz has developed a second sense for that type of work, even though it required breaking a few bones in the process.

“It’s a bit of a read-and-react as far as going certain ways or maybe taking a different route,” he said of evading defenders to get to the net. “It just all kind of happens and you don’t have time to think. You just kind of read it and the puck’s going to determine where you go.”

And then, once there, he admits it isn’t easy.

“You need to play hard,” he said. “They’re doing everything they can. They use their sticks. Or, their good size, too. It’s a battle anytime you get to the goalie at the front of the net. And that’s how it should be.”

Kraken coach Lambert said scoring goals from the net front isn’t the prime objective of having a presence there. He’s fine with scoring from the perimeter so long as players are making that happen by disrupting the goalie.

“Net front presence for me is quantified as taking away the goalie’s eyesight to see the puck,” he said. “Whether you’re crossing in front or whether you’re standing in front.”

Lambert termed it as “just a mindset and a mentality” the team needs to adapt.

As for Marchment, going to the net front can sometimes mean bowling over anything in his path. Last Saturday night that meant Maple Leafs goaltender Anthony Stolarz, who’d just previously been bumped by Schwartz on a screen ahead of a Kraken goal.

When Marchment collided with Stolarz, the goalie was so incensed he hoisted the net off its moorings in anger. Marchment lay in the crease but Stolarz, perhaps wisely on his part, didn’t attempt to fight the bigger forward.

In fact, Stolarz postgame said he didn’t blame Marchment for doing his job. And seemed to suggest his own teammates should have made him pay a bigger price.

His coach, former NHL enforcer Craig Berube, agreed, saying: “Yeah, we have to protect our goalie. We have to be harder around our net. I am not preaching to go and take guys’ heads off, but enough is enough.”

Marchment has already paid a rather hefty price for his work within the past 10 months. But he’s ready to keep taking the risk of sipping his meals through a straw again if it means adding to goal totals that saw him score 22 in each of the past two seasons.

“You’ve got to do,” he said, “what you’ve got to do.”