GDT: New Jersey Devils vs. Florida Panthers

[SteveCangialosi123]

Larsson has one bad shift on the pp and now he's completely incapable of doing so? I'd give him a few more shots and let him gain some confidence. If we were not allowing players to play the pp bc of one bad shift we would not be able to put a unit out there. Give the kid a shot he can't be worse than whatever else we put out there.

 

[Nat]

I hope someone will step up and fill hole in blue line and when Kovy returns Pete will be comfortable enough to put him in left circle. Actually, Kovy's injury may be a blessing in disguise, just imagine an adequate blue line and healthy, well rested Kovy that rips off deadly one timers from left circle

 

[JK3]

That was during the final weeks of MacLean. It actually worked, it was probably the best stretch the power play had under Oates here. Then Lemaire took him off the point, the PP stopped working and I was so ticked off

Thanks for that, I couldn't remember when, I tried to block the MacLean era from my mind lol. I'd really like to see them give it a shot at least.

 

[Bleedred]

Tremblay (I think?) ran a pretty good PP for us in 09/10. It spent much of the first half of the season in the top 3. Then it plummeted as well as everything else that season. Whoever ran it with Lemaire his first year back did a good job. I don't know who is telling them to switch spots, and waste so much time on it. That kills 20 seconds at least.

Maclean took over the PP in 2002 when he was hired as an assistant. Our PP finished dead last, but who cares cause we won it all that year. Our PP was average to bad under him for his entire assistant coaching duration. Including in the playoffs (06 Carolina series comes to mind) Most of the personnel from his years are gone now other than Patty and Zajac. His years as assistant I mean. Tremblay was good, Oates ran a good one in 10/11 in the first half when we couldn't score at even strength at all. He also ran a decent one second half of last season after we stopped giving up SHG's. In the playoffs it was very disappointing though.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

Nobody has said that's the reason that Larsson shouldn't be on the PP, yet, though...

I meant to quote you bc you essentially did say he was incapable haha. Something like his deficiencies were exposed. To me that sounds like you're saying he has holes in his game that make him unable to play on the pp. I don't agree and I think if he had a good shift with a few nice shots/passes you wouldn't have said that. Give him a few more shifts, like I said and then we can see. You may be right but at least give him a fair shake.

 

[Bleedred]

People say Oates is great at running the Washington PP, but don't they have another guy like just every team does to run the PP?

 

[manilaNJ]

I meant to quote you bc you essentially did say he was incapable haha. Something like his deficiencies were exposed. To me that sounds like you're saying he has holes in his game that make him unable to play on the pp. I don't agree and I think if he had a good shift with a few nice shots/passes you wouldn't have said that. Give him a few more shifts, like I said and then we can see. You may be right but at least give him a fair shake.

Well, I wasn't basing that off of one shift.
When you think of the elements of Larsson's game that still need to be worked on and the areas where he's showing how young he really is... they're all areas that would, indeed, be exposed on the powerplay.

Slow decision making with the puck, getting burned up the side, not getting a good stride on his opponent when he does get burned.

He is one of the better defenders at finding forwards near the net and he's also good at keeping the puck in the zone when there's no opposition pressuring him... but I'm still not confident enough that an aggressive penalty kill wouldn't expose his remaining weaknesses.

Now, all of that should be concluded with a "yet" - because I do think he'll get there one day and we'll be a better team for it.
Obviously he'll never get there without the proper playing time to do so - but I'd experiment with that with a healthy lead in the game or once playoffs have been clinched.

I'm just hesitant, not adamantly against.

 

[apice3*]

People say Oates is great at running the Washington PP, but don't they have another guy like just every team does to run the PP?

It's all done collectively as a unit but who specializes in what varies from team to team.

Oates might have more focus on his PP than DeBoer does here.

It seems that Shaw is the PP guy, Barr is the PK guy, Stevens works with the defense, and DeBoer works with the forwards. Over course there's overlap but that seems like the specialties.

 

[Bleedred]

It's all done collectively as a unit but who specializes in what varies from team to team.

Oates might have more focus on his PP than DeBoer does here.

It seems that Shaw is the PP guy, Barr is the PK guy, Stevens works with the defense, and DeBoer works with the forwards. Over course there's overlap but that seems like the specialties.

That's what I thought. I don't even remember who ran the PK before Barr. Albelin may have one year, maybe even Robinson.

One HUGE problem with our PP that some might overlook is our horrible faceoff percentage. This team has guys who take regular faceoffs operating at 30% (Still love you Gio) and I think the team is like 40% percent without Zajac. Still second worst in the league last I remember. Last year we were in the bottom 5 while missing Zajac almost the whole season. It also had a lot to do with our PK last year in the playoffs and some of the PK problems a few weeks back. How many times can you remember losing a faceoff in the playoffs on the PK last year and a goal happening shortly after on the same shift? This team goes on the PP and if they lose the faceoff which is more times than not, that kills a lot of time to attack right off the bat.