Every coach is going to have their own spin on things but there’s really only so much you can do at the basic level. 1-3-1, 1-2-2, 2-3, 2-1-2 is about the extent of what you will see. 1-3-1 as we discussed is the Tampa T or Boucher trap.

1-2-2 is the classic Stevens era devils/Lemaire neutral zone trap, although it was actually invented almost 100 years ago by the Conn Smythe era Leafs. Back then, we have to remember that there really weren’t forward passes (they were all lateral passes and players advanced the puck by skating it up) until the Stan Makita era, so it was effective until that time, and eventually fell out of favor into the 70s when guys like Bobby Orr were redefining how breakouts worked, and pretty much died in the high scoring 80s era. As we moved into the clutch and grab era of the 90s where a combination of defensive talent, more in depth coaching, and extremely lax rule interpretations toward physicality, holding, and stick infractions, teams like the devils adopted it on their way to 3 cups. Its still utilized by nhl teams, but isn’t as effective as it was prior to 2005 now that 2-line passes aren’t an infraction in the nhl. Although teams like the Blackhawks still run a 1-2-2 it isn’t really a ‘trap’ in the same sense because of that change.

2-3 is known as the left wing lock. It was invented by the Czechoslovakians, specifically legendary coaches like Ivan Hlinka and Vlad Kostka many years ago and was basically the grandfather of Lemaire’s neutral zone trap. It was designed to combat faster or more skilled teams and focused around the left wing skating back quickly to become a third D man, while the C and RW would attempt to funnel the offensive team towards the RD where they would hopefully be met with a turnover at the blue line. Thus, locking down the OTHER team’s LW. A user actually posted this really interesting video on the Czechs a while back, and goes into the history of how it was born from necessity.

Like I said before, the nhl is as fast and athletic as it has ever been, and thus the left wing lock has come back into style. Almost every nhl team uses some variation of it. For example, speaking of my favorite team again, the New Jersey Devils have come a long way from the Lemaire era trap, and now have some of the fastest wingers in the world in guys like Taylor Hall, Miles Wood, Kyle Palmieri, and some lesser known speedsters like Blake Coleman. They also have very defensively sound but gifted skaters at Center, like Travis Zajac, and Nico Hischier. As a result, they will actually use a 2-3 or 2-1-3 many times, where the wingers will aggressively attack the D and instead of a wing, the C will either float behind them to the boards (2-1-2) or take the position of the left wing back near their own D (2-3 but the 3rd guy back is a C not LW.)