Power Play Suggestions

[oXo Cube]

Not defending the PP(it's not good enough) but we still have a big time personnel issue there IMO.

It will only ever be mediocre at best until we find someone to play the point that the opposition has some respect for.

I would be in favour of trying Pulju there but we would probably need to move the guy we put in the high slot onto the other corner.

 

[McIce Whole]

Unit one:

Puju Lucic RNH
Klefbom Mcdavid

Unit Two:

Eberle Maroon Drai
Larsson Russell

 

[BoldNewLettuce]

Read the thread title.

"Oh that's easy. Fire Woodcroft"

Read OP.

"Oh.....sneaky."

I wonder if they're trying to get the defenders to get some better point shooting going.
Klefbom had like 35 shots last game and Nurse scored.

Either than that I think they need to just go pulju-mcd-maroon-klef-lars/lucic-rnh-ebs-nurse-russell or something simple instead of having playmakers play together and have sekera as the qb.

 

[oStealthKiller*]

More movement through the centre of the o zone and faster passes

 

[snipes]

I don't know, I think setting Pulju up on some one-timers is a good start and getting Sekera off the first unit.

 

[Jejune]

Sekera is just...so...bad on the power play.

I like the player, I think he's good for the blueline. But on the power play it seems like he does the exact opposite of what the other 4 guys are doing.

Everyone is skating fast ahead of him, and he waits until they hit the blue line and effectively have to stop, then he'll dump the puck in with nobody having any hope of retrieving it. Or he'll try to skate it in himself rather than handing the puck to a wide open McDavid and have the puck stripped.

That's not even getting into the shinpad shots. I can't take it. Just this one change will make the power play so much better. Just put Klefbom on the first unit, at least he has a shot and is willing to use it.

 

[cbzblaze]

Most important thing is the zone entry. They need 2-3 set plays that they can go to. Doing that drop pass play everytime gets predictable to the point where defending teams can easily break it up.

McLennan and the coaching staff have always been stubborn with personal choices. Everyone knows Sekera isn't good on the pp, he adds absolutely nothing to it. Give Russell a chance, even Benning would fare better. I understand every Dman doesn't have a cannon but just getting a simple wrist shot through shouldn't be as challenging as Sekera makes it to be. It's been so obvious ever since last year he isn't pp material.

 

[McShogun99]

Unit 1:
Eberle-Maroon-Mcdavid
JP-Klefbom

Unit 2:
Pouliot-Lucic-RNH
Draisaitl-Sekera

 

[SometimesY]

Throw the pk unit out there. What the hell.

 

[Oildrum]

I wish the NHL had the same rules as football and you could decline a penalty.

 

[CornKicker]

im all for taking exactly what we are doing now and doing the opposite

 

[honkerhitter]

I agree with putting Russell on the PP. He has a good history of producing there.

They need a big RH shot from the point... problem being they really don't have someone who suits that role.

Lets start from the basics:

Right shots on the team:

Eberle small but a good shot in close
Fayne D no bomb
Gryba D not adept at PP
Kassian big and could be greasy around the net
Larsson D... unknown how good he can be on the PP
Letestu decent at faceoffs and on PK... not much else...
Pitlick decent shot... decent size
Puljujarvi good shot
Slepyshev decent size/shot
Benning D could be a bomb from the point... but unknown at this point
Pakarinen - decent shot and size... not much experience on the PP

Left shots on the team:

Davidson D has a solid shot
Draisaitl - crafty but not particularly fast -decent shot at best
Klefbom D - decent shot
Lander - not really a PP type player
Lucic - good size
Maroon - good size
McDavid - crafty as they get, elite passer
RNH - good passer
Nurse D - decent shot when he uses it
Pouliot - decent size and shot
Russell D - crafty and has experience on the pp
Sekera D - not a great shot
Caggiula could be shifty and crafty but still an unknown quantity at the NHL level
Hendricks decent size... not a PP type player

You need balance on the PP... rights shots and left shots... skill and size... passers and shooters.

I'd be pretty radical at this stage as what they are doing doesn't seem to be working.


Lucic-McDavid-Puljujarvi
Klefbom-Larsson

Maroon-Draisaitl-Eberle
Russell-Benning

Except Connor and Leon need work on the draw to remain in zone, hence why testtube gets on the PP.

 

[nexttothemoon]

Except Connor and Leon need work on the draw to remain in zone, hence why testtube gets on the PP.

I understand the need to win draws on the PP... but I'll take a few percent fewer draws won and gain elite passing when they do win the draw over Letestu who just doesn't have the passing skills to help out much on the PP.

Keep Letestu fresh for his PK breakaways.

Fun fact...
Letestu has played 30 minutes on the PK and has two shorties.
The entire Oilers team has 52 minutes on the PP and has 4 PP goals.

 

[Jepprey]

Except Connor and Leon need work on the draw to remain in zone, hence why testtube gets on the PP.

This is said many many times.. but it's not entirely accurate. If Test tube is there strictly for the faceoffs, he should heading to the bench immediately when they're reset. Well, he doesn't. He is on that PP because they lacked a RHS after Eberle. Test tube on the PP hasn't been a problem so much this season as they now have Puljujarvi now.

 

[Mr Positive]

Watching some other games, it's apparent that we are lacking most on the point. I saw a bit of Montreal's PP and they have better movement on the point. I don't think the answer is putting forwards there. We could try Puljujarvi I guess, but imo it really should be defense back there.

At this point our best chance is Klefbom. He should be on the first unit. He has been up and down this year, but last game he broke out offensively. He had a crazy amount of shots and almost scored twice that I saw. He's also shown in the past that he can be a steady presence, moreso than he's been this year, and this year he hasn't even been bad. I think he will put it all together at some point. Maybe it will take some time, but we should continue to encourage him to explore his offensive side.

I don't see any serious options by trade opening up for us. We might have to wait out a bad PP and try different combos for a while. I'm fine with trying JP on the point, and Russell of course. I know it's popular to bash coaching in this, and it might be valid, but I will assume that they have enough hockey knowledge to eventually hash this out.

 

[bobbythebrain]

Most important thing is the zone entry. They need 2-3 set plays that they can go to. Doing that drop pass play everytime gets predictable to the point where defending teams can easily break it up.

McLennan and the coaching staff have always been stubborn with personal choices. Everyone knows Sekera isn't good on the pp, he adds absolutely nothing to it. Give Russell a chance, even Benning would fare better. I understand every Dman doesn't have a cannon but just getting a simple wrist shot through shouldn't be as challenging as Sekera makes it to be. It's been so obvious ever since last year he isn't pp material.

No they don't. Default to McD everytime. It's not rocket science on pp's. Flyers for instance default to Giroux 95% of the time. All teams know it but as long as the players execute proper it's basically unstoppable.

Look at the most successful pp's in the NHL. We all can see what is happening, Backstrom passes to OV. Stamkos rips a one-timer. Giroux QB's the pp. Laine on the point shot.

It's all about player execution. Other teams know what's going to happen but each player must be able to execute properly. As long as players do their jobs it's a recipe for succes.

Woodcroft however has players like Ebs playing the wrong side, McD last game on the other side, etc. He thinks it's a guessing game lol. It's not. The best pp's are the most predictable

Even on zone entry. As long as the players time it right and do their jiobs interference/position/etc, it is virtually unstoppable. It comes down to execution, yet Woodcroft has these guys doing things different everytime. The guy is a plug

 

[nexttothemoon]

If it's not working try and make changes.

As that famous NHL coach (Einstein) once said...

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."


Try two dmen on the PP... try some new blood out there among the forwards to see if they can change the look and flow of the PP... try anything that might spark some offense.

 

[ohheyhemsky]

Aside from firing Woodcroft?

Fire Woodcroft.

 

[ohheyhemsky]

Hire Oates!!

What's the point without Hall?

 

[bobbythebrain]

If it's not working try and make changes.

As that famous NHL coach (Einstein) once said...

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."


Try two dmen on the PP... try some new blood out there among the forwards to see if they can change the look and flow of the PP... try anything that might spark some offense.

The problem is he is trying new things. Let the players become good at onething, that is more succesful

 

[oobga]

Aside from firing Woodcroft?

Fire Woodcroft.

Can other things be done to woodcroft aside from firing?

How about promote Woodcroft? VP of Hockey Operations. He can work along with MacT flying to cities to scout players that they find out are playing somewhere else.

 

[nexttothemoon]

Can other things be done to woodcroft aside from firing?

How about promote Woodcroft? VP of Hockey Operations. He can work along with MacT flying to cities to scout players that they find out are playing somewhere else.

Sign them both up for that Mars mission. Who knows, there might be some decent prospects there. It's cold enough, should be some good players developing there.

Could be a young alien prospect with one hell of a PP point shot just waiting to be discovered playing for the Olympus Mons junior team.

 

[nabob]

Except Connor and Leon need work on the draw to remain in zone, hence why testtube gets on the PP.

Pretty sure that the stats for the last 92 games show that Letestu on the PP hasn't resulted in more PP draws won than the other centers on the club.

 

[The Bored Man]

Power play faceoff percentage from the start of last season:

RNH: 55.2
McDavid: 52.6

Letestu: 52.9

http://ice.nhl.com/stats/player?agg...filter=gamesPlayed,gte,&sort=ppFaceoffWinPctg

I don't see any justification for Letestu getting PP time.

Mind you, the sample size is pretty small (19 faceoffs) for McDavid. But Letestu goes on the second unit anyway so I still stand by my point.

Also, I'd give Larsson a shot on the first unit. Sekera is a good player but #SekeraShinpad is becoming the new #PurcellOffside.

 

[Jepprey]

The problem is more so on the fact they haven't utilized their open man on the left circle, which is usually Eberle. For the most part, they've been cycling it downlow with an overload cycle in the right corner. I'm no fan of Overload PP's as it tries to be too pretty. In general, this type of setup doesn't really lead to many scoring chances as it requires supreme precision. Teams with aggressive pressure on McDavid and Drai in the corners do well against this PP. One chance on net or one mistaken pass, and the puck is cleared and they'll be lucky to be reset 30 seconds later.

The first unit QB'd by Connor McDavid should be a modified Umbrella. Frankly, I would love to see Jesse on the first unit as we have not seen that bomb used yet. He's probably the only player on this team that's capable of a one-time shot. He sure did flub one opportunity against the Leafs though. lol. If Eberle has to be there, so be it, but they need to utilize him way more than they have been in the last month. Let the shooters shoot.

---------------- NET -------
------------ Lucic -------Drai-----------
----------------------------------
---- Puljujarvi/14 --------- McDavid
--------------------------------------
----------------- Larsson ------------

The second unit. An Umbrella in the traditional sense. The pointman can be anybody who can get the damn puck to the net. Sekera the shinpad magnet needs to stay away. Both 67 and 19 are decent on tips and we need as much traffic up front as possible. As long as guys are on their off wings (wtf was Eberle doing on the right side and McDavid on left side last game vs Leafs)

---------------- NET ---------------
--------- Maroon - Pouliot --------
----------------------------------
---- Eberle/98 --------- RNH
--------------------------------------
----------------- x ------------

When **** isn't going right, as some teams are pretty effective against Umbrellas, they should definitely try out a 1-3-1. Gives McDavid every option possible. Eberle and Pulj are interchangeable, but this gives the pk units a different look. A big part of using RHS bombs like Stamkos/Ovechkin and their PP success normally run versions of the 1-3-1.

---------------- NET ----------------
--------------- Lucic -----------
-- Puljujarvi -------------- McDavid
------------- Eberle -----------
--------------------------------------
---------------- Larsson ------------