Our PP sucks.
Teams know to just play aggressive and up high because the whole PP essentially revolves around Hughes’s puck movement and possession rather than focusing on attacking the net. There’s almost never anyone close to the net within striking distance so we devolve to the high bumper/JT Miller top of the circle wind ups. There’s no shoot mentality. 0 shots in 3 of our 4 PP’s.
Another issue is Hughes holds onto the puck way too long. I counted how long each Boston player had the puck and most of the time, the guys on the PP had the puck on their stick for no longer than 2 seconds. Hughes holds onto the puck and starts stickhandling at the point presumably to assess his own chances and teammates availability but he becomes stationary when he does this. Within 2 seconds, the PK’ers are already blocking the passing lanes.
I suggest two things. Forget about the stupid high bumper, have two guys in the slot, Lindholm and Miller. Secondly, Boeser plays the left side on his one timer, and Petey sets up on the right side. Lindholm plays left side of the slot, Miller plays on the right side, downlow. Everyone is effectively in their one time position where they can attack the net quickly and get a shot and a rebound. With two guys closer to the net, there’s more traffic, and more opportunity for rebounds. This forces the opposing PK to relieve pressure off of Hughes because now there’s 2 guys attacking the net and PK’ers have to respect that. This leaves at least minimum 1 passing lane available for Hughes/Boeser or Hughes/Pettersson.
Another thing is Pettersson seriously needs to be playing shoot first. Always setting himself to shoot on a receiving end from a Hughes pass. Getting that through to Boeser should be easy, Pettersson on the other hand wants to hold onto the puck and try and make his own plays, it just never works.