If it feels like your offense has been skating on oatmeal instead of ice against Minsk, Copenhagen and Helsinki, there is a good reason for that: those three teams are virtually perfecting team defense and protecting their goalies at unprecedented rates in the last few years.

Last year (Season 17), Minsk set a league record for fewest shots allowed in a season (23.83 per game). The record they broke was the one they themselves set a season earlier, and the record before that was only a year old, set by Copenhagen in Season 15.

The last three seasons have produced four of the five best “team defense” seasons any EURO League teams have ever had in the league and of the top 11 team performances ever in Shots Allowed Per Game, seven have come in either Season 15, 16 or 17.

All-time, Minsk GM Igor Kirunov is the stingiest of everyone, with 9 of the Top 25 best seasons ever in that category. Copenhagen’s Martin Sayle has 6 and Helsinki’s Jukka Tuominen has 4.

While defense is only half the game, there must be something to this being good at limiting opponents’ shots thing because the top teams in that category often finish with 100 points or more in the standings. Lots of factors go into team defense. First, it helps to have a coach who is good at defensive scheming and practice plans. Then, the strategy has to be a more conservative one, perhaps including collapsing defenseman and forwards that stay in their positions. And individual player attributes come into play – Defense Rating and some other areas – to help execute the plan that the coaching staff has put in place.