Sixes Lacrosse: The Canadian Offense

In this video, we will primarily examine the Canadian offensive attack from the World Sixes Championship final in 2022, also looking at some of the tendencies of team USA. We will also look further into the ways in which the majority of the goals in this game were scored.

An “offensive set” is a settled even strength situation involving 5 players on the field, initiating a set of principles/rules/guidelines for players to follow in order to add structure and make things flow.

Generally speaking, Canada used a “freelance” offense, with a few set plays mixed in, early and late in quarters. Although to freelance literally means “to work for yourself, with no allegiance to anyone,” in order for this offense to be effective, all players on the field were involved; there were no spectators.

In a freelance offense, there should be options to choose from, along with freedom to use individual intuitiveness, all in an effort to exploit weaknesses and break down the opponent’s style of defensive play. Offensive players need to force the defense to respond to their actions, thereby creating separation for themself and time & space for teammates.

Superior team offense promotes swinging the ball, plenty of "motion" pick & rolls and pick & pops; in other words “pass, pick, pop, roll, replace, cut, shoot,” as Casey Powell used to describe it. Offensive players need to spread the defense by staying wide, while also adjusting their position to help create open passing lanes. You can’t allow the off-ball defenders to sag and stand in help positions; you have to keep them engaged with hard work and tenacity. “Always Be Cycling (ABC’s Of Offense),” Team Canada Sixes General Manager Eddie Comeau used to say, referring to players continuously making meaningful/purposeful movement, both on-ball and off-ball.

Sometimes, a predetermined set of actions can be executed by an Offense in a settled situation, whether even-strength or on the powerplay, developed and practiced to create an advantage or opportunity during a game; these are otherwise known as a "set-plays" or "focus plays." Usually teams will try a “set-play” on offense after a time-out, dead ball, or the first possession of a period/quarter, which was often the case for Canada in their lopsided 23-9 victory over the USA in this game.

The offensive set-play that Canada seemed to continue to exploit was an empty-crease setup primarily on the “weak-side” or 2-player side (sometimes “strong-side” or 3-player side), with an east-west pick & roll attempt at the shooter position.

In my last blog on "Defense" in sixes lacrosse, I identified the tendency of the American defenders to “stay” on their check instead of switching in a pick & roll situation, which Canada must have also realized at the Super Sixes warm-up tournament the previous year…let me break it down for you.

Empty Crease: East-West Pick & Roll

Clip #1/#2:

These first two clips were analyzed extensively in the sixes defense video but the main thing to notice in this and all preceding clips (which are in the order they appeared in the game) is that both American defenders are continuously jumping out at the ball on an east-west pick and leaving the roller wide open behind them.

If you watch the Super Sixes tournament the year prior, this set-up seemed to get used impromptu a few times within a freelance offense, but it seemed to generate a great opportunity the majority of the time. If you note how early in the game that these first two clips are, it’s obvious that this empty crease set-up was a big part of the Canadian game plan going into this one.

Clip #3 “Empty Crease On The Strong Side For A Bomb from Byrne”

This third clip shows an empty crease set-up on the strong-side, with one player stationed behind the net in order to create space for the other two. The last clip was also on the strong-side and the third player just ran their check to their wrong-side in that case. Here, the american defender #1 Kirst, is inviting Teat #51 top-side instead of denying it, which could have negated the whole situation. Instead, the low defender #25 Goodrich, fires out anticipating a switch that wasn’t there, leaving #22 Byrne, the leading scorer of the tournament, wide open for a mid-range bomb.

Clip #4 “Berg With The Crease Dive In Tight”

Here it is again with Dhane Smith #92 sweeping over top of an east-west pick from #14 Berg, who is wide open on the roll and makes no mistake with one short-side fake and a crease dive finishing low to the far-side on American Goalie Jack Kelly, who had no chance.

Clip #5 “This Is What Happens When You Don’t Fire Out”

This last clip shows what happens when you don’t fire out, with an easy mid-range bounce shot from Smith coming overtop of the pick (which is option #1 in any pick & roll situation). If you re-watch the last few clips you will also realize that #1 or #25 were involved in the last 5 breakdowns in this situation, which makes you realize that Canada was likely purposefully exploiting these weak defenders (“pigeons” or “fish”) in the “two-man game” aka “two-player game,” when they got the opportunity.

Junior says we’ve got more to give!!!

Crease Vacate or Clear Out

Clip #1 “ #28 Bowering Triggering The Crease Vacate”

The other set play that Canada repeatedly went to was a crease vacate or clear-out, primarily on the strong-side, timed with a hard run underneath by the ball carrier. Watch closely how as soon as #28 Bowering on Canada touches the low crease position he vacates into the middle, "triggering" the high ball carrier #51 Teat to take a hard run underneath. Most set-plays have predetermined triggers that signal the start of the play, developed in practice, starting first against no defense, later against a live defense and then in games.

Notice that Teat also had the east-west pick option from #55 Cole, which may have also gotten Teat open overtop, adding even further apprehension to the decision making process of the American defenders.

Clip #2 “Another Vacated Crease For Teat”

The same group of players go right back to the same play on their very next shift. They start in an empty crease east-west setup for the righties, which actually allows #92 Smith to get top-side, however he elects to swing the ball to the lefties and this time Bowering & Cole both clear out as soon as Teat receives the ball. #26 Schreiber actually has good top-side position at first, but the two lower defenders abandon him without him knowing it leading to an uncontested run underneath, with a crippler shot five hole on the goalie.

As I mentioned repeatedly in the sixes defense video, somebody needs to tell Schrieber he’s alone so he can angle his feet and deny the underneath lane, otherwise making the high-low switch. However, neither happens leading to an easy goal for Canada.

Clip #3 “MacIntosh Takes His Check For A Loop”

Here it is with the righties. Petterson #42 is already spread nice and wide at the point position, standing slightly on his wrong side. MacIntosh #24 clears out from the crease for Smith and if you follow him, he takes a loop around Pettersons defender and then cuts hard to the net, getting left wide open but robbed by Jack Kelly in tight.

Clip #4 “Cole With The Swim Underneath For The Crease Dive”

Finally you have two consecutive hard underneath cuts late in the 3rd quarter. This first one, Cole can see that he has a straight up “iso” situation at the crease, with no other American defenders around to help. The other two Canadian lefties stay clear in recognizing the opportunity, with Cole ultimately taking a jab-step top-side and swimming the much smaller defender, taking him hard underneath and to the rack with full extension on the crease dive.

Clip #5 “Currier Taking What He’s Given”

Same thing with #77 Currier on the very next possession, Teat gives a little pick and pop action off of the up-pick and Currier takes the low defender hard underneath for the g-note. It is an invitation to go underneath when the defenders are checking this far out (“aka over-checking”) as well as not denying the lane underneath.

Hard Underneath & Curl Out:

1st Clip: “It’s Always Worth Trying Your Check Underneath”

It’s always worth trying your check underneath within a “freelance” offense or any other time they aren’t playing with proper defensive positioning and footwork. Many good looks were created during this game in this fashion, including the first possession of the game for the Americans, which makes me wonder why they never continued to go back to the well as the game went on.

2nd Clip “Rogers Taking The Space At The Crease”

Look at all of the room there is at the crease for Challen Rogers to try the underneath on the strong-side, on this one. This defender needs to stay tighter and not check so far out. Nonetheless, Rogers attracts attention in the form of an adjacent slide, easily hitting the adjacent pass which leads to a wide open opportunity in front.

3rd Clip “Exact Same Thing On The Very Next Shift”

Here you have the exact same play on the very next shift from the same group; hard underneath, curl out, two passess and in the net. That’s the thing about offense, if it’s working keep going to it and you saw that pattern from the Canadians in this game.

Around the Horn & Dodge From the Shooter:

As I mentioned at the beginning of the video, on any given offensive-set, teams usually have a set of guidelines/rules for players to follow in order to add structure and make things flow offensively. For the Americans, their go to play was to pass it around the horn, meaning around the net from one shooter to the other, then attack the net. I’m not sure why they kept going back to it because it never worked, not once. It was literally wasted movement and precious time. In fact, it led to two fast-breaks the other way (one for a goal), as you can see.

The other set play the Americans seemed to do was the alley dodge, which I broke down extensively in our Sixes: Box on a Field blog. In wrapping up on 5-on-5, I will not even acknowledge the alley dodge as a fundamental form of team offense that should be played in Sixes. Further, it should be noted that goals scored in transition are not covered in this video.

Special Teams:

There’s not much to report on in terms of set-plays on the powerplay. It was a very basic 3-on-2 across the top for the most part, with the Candians liking the quality of looks they were getting from a relatively stationary USA box zone defense that they were playing. They were “pinching” very hard at the top on Teat and he was just playing games with them. Smith took his first couple open shots as result of all the attention Teat was getting, both of which were actually great saves by the American goalie. They used the same set up with Teat again later at the beginning of the 3rd quarter on the powerplay (a rule which I hate and I will tell you why in the rule suggestions video we do), this time giving one fake pass and shooting a short-side bouncer. Teat also showed his backhand pass from the top at the Super Sixes tournament the year earlier, where Canada again just kept it simple and had similar results.

In this game Canada was 3/4 for 75% vs. the USA who were ¼ at 25%. The biggest difference was the rotating diamond that Canada would throw out, applying pressure on the shooters and the point. The only available option was temporarily at the crease, which is where the Americans got their lone goal. Special teams as a whole remains a great area of exploration still to be seen in the evolution of the sixes game.

Shot Selection:

Dobson = 9/18 (50%) - USA missed the net 12 times

Kelly = 7/30 (23%) - CAN missed the net 3 times

*Full tournament stats available at https://swog2022.sportresult.com/hide/en/Pdf/GetResultbookPdf?filename=Lacrosse.pdf

Looking through the stats and analyzing all of the possessions from this Championship game, there was a big feeling out process at the beginning of the first quarter with lots of saves and turnovers and a few goals sprinkled in. Canada then scored on 4 of its last 5 possessions of the quarter taking a commanding 6-1 lead that they never looked back from.

It’s important to note how little production and how many mistakes were made in the 4th quarter, with only 3 goals from Canada and 1 for USA. It’s also critical to acknowledge how many times the USA missed the net (12), versus Canada (3).

However, as I mentioned in the last blog on defense, Canada simply got much higher quality shots throughout the course of this game. Below is a shot chart with the Canadians represented with red x’s, Americans with black x’s; goals with a green ball, saves with a white ball and shots that missed the net with no ball.

As you can see not many of the American shots were in the middle and they also settled for shots from much further out than the Canadians. Almost half of the Canadian goals came from directly in front of the net. This was due to far superior pick and roll play, as I’ve broken out at length; also, world class shooting and finishing in front of the net by the Canadians, who are used to scoring on much smaller nets with much bigger goalies.

Scoring goals requires fakes, both subtle (i.e. body fakes) and overt (i.e. stick fakes); with changes in shot angle and elevation, both horizontal & vertical, changes in shot nature or style (set-shot, shot on the run, quick stick, crease walk, etc.), as well as release points, all within a variety of different game scenarios. This chart breaks it down:

Based on the stats between both teams, an overhand short-side bounce shot was the most likely shot to go in (likely ¾ release in this scenario). A close second would be a high side-arm short to the far-side top corner, although the Americans scored no side-arm goals at all, while the Canadians had just as many side-arm goals as they had overhand.

Conclusion (What have we learned?):

As we roll the goal montage in the background for you, with every goal in sequential order as they appeared in the game, let’s think about what we’ve learned here. In summary, Canada played a principles based “freelance” offense with set plays approximately 50% of the time. If the set-play didn't present a quality shot, they just continued to work the ball around with meaningful motion and purposeful picks. The pick and roll game was the key to creating separation and 2-on-1’s in the offensive zone, primarily on ball, but in some cases off ball.

Canada had two set plays: the crease vacate and empty crease east-west pick, both of which were geared toward the best attributes of their players. After that it was just trust your instincts and take what they give you.

The Americans had guys operating on their wrong-side all over the place, which is a big mistake when the two-man game was what was getting guys wide open in the middle for shots. The picks set by the Americans were rarely east-west, seemingly always north-south. When they were set east-west I was still seeing them go underneath (i.e. not using the pick properly), which is a mistake. You should be using the picks 90% of the time! On a north-south pick you go underneath, on an east-west pick you go top-side; that’s just the way it is…

In saying that, it’s pretty hard to play 2-man game when you only have two lefty’s on your roster!!! This is also a problem in American field lacrosse. If you look back at our first sixes blog showing the player stats from the tournament, it’s quite clear that the USA’s entire offense was coming from their righties. Perhaps the lefties were fatigued? They did have the most turnovers, less assists and a lower shooting percentage, which is surprising because #13 Guterding lit it up at the Super Sixes tournament the year prior.

When guys get tired late in quarters there is little time to settle into your offense, you need to look for a great shot right off the bat on most possessions and Canada was one or two passes and attack, one swing pass then re-attack. And lastly, you won’t see anyone celebrating a goal out there, as it’s immediately off the field or hard back to defense.

To view the full Vlog related to this article please visit our youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKdRfBmfVFc&t=6s

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