J.C. Tremblay and the Lost Art of the High Flip in Today’s NHL
They say there’s nothing new under the sun — so why does the “high flip” feel like a lost art when it can still win you games? Every now and then, you’ll see it pop up in a modern playoff game. A puck gets lofted out of trouble from the boards or the high slot, floating into that dangerous space between defenders and the goalie. It’s not quite a pass, not quite a shot. It’s something in between — a soft aerial puck dropped into chaos.
And it always looks a little bit out of place in today’s structured NHL. But this isn’t new. Not even close.
J.C. Tremblay was the master of the high flip for the Canadiens.
If you go back to the Montreal Canadiens of the 1960s, you’ll find J.C. Tremblay doing this on purpose. Tremblay wasn’t just moving the puck regularly — he was flipping it into areas where only his teammates knew it might land. He was, for lack of a better term, the king of the high flip.
It worked because the game was different. Defenders were tighter to the ice, but their sticks weren’t as aggressively layered into lanes. Goaltenders had less advanced positioning and equipment, making it more unpredictable to track floating pucks. And maybe most importantly, Tremblay’s Canadiens practiced it. They expected it. They built timing around chaos.
Fast forward to today, and the high flip looks almost like a mistake when it happens.
Related: Could Nico Hischier Actually End Up with the Canadiens?
Modern NHL defensive systems are built to kill exactly this kind of play.
Today’s defensive structure clogs the middle. Stick pressure forces low-percentage decisions. And goaltenders, with better athleticism and tracking, are far more comfortable dealing with unusual puck paths. Coaches also tend to prefer controlled entries and tape-to-tape passes, the kind that show up better in analytics models.
So the high flip sort of disappeared. Or at least it mostly did. Because here’s the part we sometimes forget: structure creates predictability, and predictability can be broken.
A well-timed high flip still has value, especially when the ice tightens in the playoffs. It creates chaos in front. It turns a clean defensive posture into a scramble of reactions. It asks a simple question: can your goalie find this puck before someone else does? And the answer is often no.
In today's NHL, you don't see the high flip as often as you used to.
The modern version isn’t something you use every shift. It’s situational. Late power play. Desperation time. A defence is collapsing too hard into passing lanes. You don’t build a system around it — you keep it in your pocket.
You also need the right target: a net-front player willing to live in that messy space, ready for tips, rebounds, and broken plays. In a way, it’s less about skill than timing and nerve.
The high flip isn’t a relic of the past. It’s just an underused tool in a league that prefers certainty. And every so often, when the structure gets too perfect, a little Tremblay-style chaos is exactly what breaks it.
[I'd like to say thanks to Mike Day for sharing information about the history of the high flip with me.]