Are there any tactics and strategy in ice hockey?

There is a ton of strategy in Ice Hockey, it's just usually more difficult to see unless you're familiar with what's going on. It's actually a credit to the players that you think it's so random, because they're just that good that the plays all form into each other like a beautiful chaotic dance.

A few things that you really miss out on by not being on or near the ice is the communication. In all sports, the players are constantly yelling at each other, always letting their mates know:

• Where they are
• Things they see
• Where they need to be
• If they need help
• What to expect them to do
• If their open
• If they need a change

A coach installs a general system of play and then they practice scenarios and how to get into or out of them.

For instance, there's the 1-3-1 neutral zone trap defense played by the Tampa Bay lighting a few years back (this is a modification of the Neutral zone trap played by the New Jersey Devils in the 90s):

The center plays in the middle ahead of the blue line and tracks the puck handler, pressuring them to move the puck.

The wings play close to the walls inside the neutral zone and crush anyone trying to get by them.

One of the defensemen plays the center of the neutral zone and doesn't let anyone through the middle.

The last defenseman plays back and tries to be the first guy on the puck when it gets inevitably dumped in. If he gets the puck first by a long shot, it's very difficult for the opposition to forecheck to maintain possession.

The style that New Jersey played was much more aggressive in the neutral zone, but it took advantage of the 2 line pass rule that said that a pass can't cross two lines. That rule was removed because of the drop in scoring that resulted from the trap. 

The Tampa 1-3-1 was very effective, so long as they had the lead.  If the other team had the lead they could effectively dance around with the puck in the defensive zone, spreading out the trap. The offense could then send two guys at speed and try to get a pass through the neutral zone catching the middle 3 players on their heels and creating a 2 on 1 mismatch in the offensive zone. The capitals took advantage of that pretty often to run up the score on the Lighting when they had the opportunity.

Another place where strategy and set plays come into effect is on power plays and penalty kills.

A common set up for a power play is to make a circle around the offensive zone. The defense might play a diamond, set up similar to what is set up above.  The top players in the triangle try to press out and pressure the puck handler while the lower player keeps pressure on the guys by the net.

Another set up (the capitals in particularly like to run) on the power play has one guy in the middle in front of the net, two guys high on the sides, one guy behind the net, and one guy in the middle on the blue line.  They cycle the puck around trying to draw the defender out and get the goaltender moving laterally, then they try to get the puck with a couple of quick passes to an open guy who makes a quick shot.

There is a lot of subtle strategy in every game, and tactics may change from line to line. 3rd and 4th lines tend to play very hard fore- and back-checking, trying to energize their team and demoralize the other team, while 1st and 2nd lines may play more of a finesse style trying to out skill the other team.

The more you watch, the more you pick up on these things. I'd recommend following a blog of your favorite team, SBNation has great blogs for every team, they'll break it down for you afterwards and over time you'll see how these things happen. Depending on your area, color commentators can fill in a lot of what you're missing, also.

It's such a fast sport, the good teams are the ones that unconsciously know where their team mates are and where the puck is that it seems like there's nothing going on, when there is really an incredible amount of detail going into every play.