All else being equal, carrying the puck through the middle drastically improves the attacking team’s ability to threaten the net immediately after crossing the blue line. By entering the OZ between the dots, F1 forces both Ds to collapse to the middle and invites the first backchecking forward to overcommit. Meanwhile, F2 is an easy target for a kick-out pass while F3 has an opportunity to win a foot race to the back post.