So the Powerplay...

[Blueline Bomber]

It's on a heater, obviously. Probably the best its looked for almost two decades at this point. But I was curious if anyone had any insight on what caused this sudden turnaround. Because not too long ago, it was straight garbage. It was the PP we've known for the last few years.

IMO, the obvious place to start looking is the Western Canadian road trip. 4 losses, 4 games where the PP failed to make an impact and even had opportunities late in those games for game tying or game-winning goals.

The following 7 games, they alternated between successful and not.

2/2 vs OTT
0/4 vs DET,
2/3 vs NSH
0/4 vs WSH
3/3 vs VGK
0/2 vs PIT
2/4 vs NYI

So, some signs of life, only occasionally though. Still, 9/22 is a pretty good hit rate overall. Then we get to our current 5-game winning streak:

2/5 vs NSH
1/3 vs MTL (though it was an ENG)
2/4 vs TOR
2/4 vs NYR
2/3 vs WSH

So in the last 12 games,18/41 on the man advantage, or a 43% success rate.

So something changes between the Vancouver loss at the end of that road trip and the win vs OTT. Obviously, players were rightfully upset about that road trip and said the right things afterwards. I believe they even held a player's only meeting upon their return.

But was that all it took? The personal has changed a little. I believe TonyD was removed from the PP in the midst of these past 12 games, and obviously, Svech has made a big impact on the PP in his return as well. But I believe the structure of the PP and the plan when they're out there has remained consistent.

Thoughts?

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[bleedgreen]

Svech is healthy and he can now hit one timers. Thats the primary difference I see. It opens everything up If you have to start leaning towards stopping one guy. We’ve been lacking a half wall one timer since forever. Aho and Necas are inconsistent at it and they distribute better anyway.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

I reported this thread. The only purpose for it is to jinx the PP.

I really don't see much difference in the approach. As @Anton Dubinchuk said in one a thread a couple days ago, Burns and Aho seemed to be moving more forward with the puck and as Bleed said, Svech hitting those one timers helps. I also think we have better net front guys. The overall approach doesn't look much different though.

To me, a lot of it comes down to confidence. They used to look more rattled when pressured in the past and now seem way more poised with the puck and I attribute that to confidence. They look way more in synch as a group now.

Will be interesting to see if teams adjust to that cross seam pass that Aho's now made a few times to Svech. The goal of pretty much every PK is to not allow that pass to get through.

 

[Nikishin Go Boom]

Changing aho’s spot and adding Svech has turned the decent pp into juggernaut levels

 

[TheBigLetowski]

Aho winning PP offensive zone FO's and switching Svech's spot.

 

[Tryamw]

It's so hot it's about to go nuclear then the half-life will be met and it'll be garbage again..

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

I’ve been thinking about this goal for two months now. It’s an excellent and extreme example of using the space available to you on the power play to create that threatening, (in this case not so) subtle forward movement.

If you ignore handedness, this is absolutely a “play” that Aho and Burns would run together, but it’s barely a “play” at all. It’s Nikishin deciding to get cavalier with the notion of forward threatening motion by backing up out of frame of basically every single replay of the goal in order to be very threatening upon reception of the pass, and ultimately score by leaning into one, “hardest shot competition” style with his running start.

When the Canes PP isn’t working, that pass is to a Burns that is completely standing still, and his options are way less threatening. In fact, I think this movement is what Tony DeAngelo does very well, and why the PP would suddenly get a spark when he entered the lineup. Now that it’s present again, he doesn’t matter as much.

 

[SvechneJerk]

An effective slapshot from the dots literally changes everything else on a PP. As has been brought up in the past, our PP was so predictable, our opponents simply had to clog the middle of the ice. While we would play catch on the perimeter, the other team barely had to move much. Now, with that threat on the wing, the D has to account for that threat & cheat towards it, opening up the middle, allowing more successful seam passes, further breaking down their coverage.

You don't have to look any further than the Caps 2nd goal, when Ovi, from his office, had 2 defenders rush out to him, leaving Dowd wide open in front of Kooch. That threat just creates way more options.

EDIT: Sorry, it was Strome, not Dowd.

 

[MrazeksVengeance]

Seen that one before.

SHOW IT IN THE PLAY-OFFS.

 

[Big Daddy Cane]

Barring a Svech breakout, just a heater. And the personnel is capable of that. In 21, the abbreviated season that saw them finish 2nd for the year, the best 12 game stretch (Feb. 24 - Mar. 18): 14/39 (~36%). It didn’t carry over into the playoffs, unfortunately.

 

[Sens1Canes2]

Aho winning PP offensive zone FO's and switching Svech's spot.

Have zero idea why this has taken … 5 years? Svech is tailor-made for the right side one-timer. Been saying it forever. You want a shoot-first guy in the one timer position, not a playmaker (TT and to a lesser extent Aho).

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

Have zero idea why this has taken … 5 years? Svech is tailor-made for the right side one-timer. Been saying it forever. You want a shoot-first guy in the one timer position, not a playmaker (TT and to a lesser extent Aho).

Tripp is quick to point out that the one timer is not something Svechnikov has had, it’s something he’s consistently worked on. Even then it’s not elite by any stretch. It might be just now getting to the point where it’s the bare minimum dangerous to put him there.

 

[Big Daddy Cane]

Not to be too much of a Debbie Downer here, but both Svech one time goals were through the royal road. He didn’t brute force them off a center point pass a la Ovechkin or Stamkos. A component PK will close the box in a playoff series.

 

[MinJaBen]

Not to be too much of a Debbie Downer here, but both Svech one time goals were through the royal road. He didn’t brute force them off a center point pass a la Ovechkin or Stamkos. A component PK will close the box in a playoff series.

 

[MrazeksVengeance]

An effective slapshot from the dots literally changes everything else on a PP. As has been brought up in the past, our PP was so predictable, our opponents simply had to clog the middle of the ice. While we would play catch on the perimeter, the other team barely had to move much. Now, with that threat on the wing, the D has to account for that threat & cheat towards it, opening up the middle, allowing more successful seam passes, further breaking down their coverage.

You don't have to look any further than the Caps 2nd goal, when Ovi, from his office, had 2 defenders rush out to him, leaving Dowd wide open in front of Kooch. That threat just creates way more options.

EDIT: Sorry, it was Strome, not Dowd.

But see… IT HAS THE ADVANTAGE OF THET DAFT CU^T NOT SCORING.

 

[Svechhammer]

As for why the PP is working.... They keep the puck moving. When we stagnate we see guys just puckhandle to death waiting for a pass to open up with all guys sitting in their spots. What I'm seeing right now is the puck in constant motion, with deliberate passes to open up a passing lane, or someone skating into an open spot to find the lane. We're working to get those cross ice passes and it's paying off.

I'm still iffy on if this will work in the playoffs, when teams have tended to clog the area in front of the net rather than allow themselves to get stretched, so we'll see if this continues. I like what I'm seeing for now, though

 

[ndp]

Seemed like a lot of Burns point/middle of the ice shots weren’t getting through earlier in the season. @Boom Boom Apathy does anyone track this?

When those shots are constantly getting blocked it forces the high fwd to play a much more timid approach so as not to allow a shorty going the other way?

Plus they’re getting more sustained offensive zone pressure, result of cleanly winning faceoffs, getting those point shots through and retrieving and resetting. Felt like they were spending quite a bit of time just trying to enter the zone earlier in the season. Whatever was ailing Aho at the dot earlier seems to have finally sorted itself out.

It’s going to be interesting to see what adjustments they make when teams start to close down the cross ice passes as @Big Daddy Cane pointed out.

With how they play 5v5 it shouldn’t be hard to work the puck high to low still finding ways to get Svech open for his newly found one timer. Just keep winning the faceoffs and getting the high shots through cleanly.

I just hope they save some of it for when the playoffs roll around.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Seemed like a lot of Burns point/middle of the ice shots weren’t getting through earlier in the season. @Boom Boom Apathy does anyone track this?

When those shots are constantly getting blocked it forces the high fwd to play a much more timid approach so as not to allow a shorty going the other way?

From the start of the season through 11/30, here are his numbers:
Shots on goal: 8
Individual Corsi For: 19
Individual Fenwick For: 12
Games Played: 22
TOI: 56:24

From 12/1 through today:
Shots on goal: 12
Individual Corsi for: 19
Individual Fenwick for: 16
Games played: 17
TOI: 43:19

Corsi: All shot attempts
Fenwick: All shot attempts excluding blocked shots
Shots: Only shot attempts that are on goal (so no misses, no blocks)

So if my interpretation of the terms above is correct (and it may not be), your assessment looks correct. Burns only had 3 shots blocked in 19 attempts from Dec 1st til now, and had 7 shots blocked out of 19 attempts from the start of the season through November.

So, he's taking more shots / minute played, getting less of them blocked and getting more of them on net percentage wise. Given the small sample, it might not be statistically significant (ie..it could even out over time), but those are the numbers.

Edit: Also, Canes PP from start of the season through Nov. 30: 20.3% in 22 games
Canes PP from 12/1 through today: 39.3%

 

[Blueline Bomber]

I guess I’m just wondering why the things that are working now are working now.

Because let’s face it: If the problem to solving our PP woes over the last decade or so was “Keep the puck moving and develop a slap shot from the boards”, I would hope someone in the organization would have brought that up at some point during [insert one of many PP droughts here]. Especially when I know for a fact every person on this board could identify the lack of movement on our poor PPs.

Confidence is an easy answer, and may end up be the right one. Momentum building and all that. But I’ve got to assume something changed after the Western Canadian roadtrip. While we did have some success on the PP before then (we scored 2 PPGs in the Buffalo game immediately before), the road trip was a bit of a mess in that regard.

0/3 vs Winnipeg (including a chance to tie the game in the third)
0/2 vs Edmonton (the less said about this game, the better)
0/1 vs Calgary (and the Flames GWG was scored short handed)
1/5 vs Vancouver

To go from that to what we’ve been able to do in the last 5 games, it’s night and day.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

I guess I’m just wondering why the things that are working now are working now.

Because let’s face it: If the problem to solving our PP woes over the last decade or so was “Keep the puck moving and develop a slap shot from the boards”, I would hope someone in the organization would have brought that up at some point during [insert one of many PP droughts here]. Especially when I know for a fact every person on this board could identify the lack of movement on our poor PPs.

Confidence is an easy answer, and may end up be the right one. Momentum building and all that. But I’ve got to assume something changed after the Western Canadian roadtrip. While we did have some success on the PP before then (we scored 2 PPGs in the Buffalo game immediately before), the road trip was a bit of a mess in that regard.

0/3 vs Winnipeg (including a chance to tie the game in the third)
0/2 vs Edmonton (the less said about this game, the better)
0/1 vs Calgary (and the Flames GWG was scored short handed)
1/5 vs Vancouver

To go from that to what we’ve been able to do in the last 5 games, it’s night and day.

Why do goal scorers go through droughts and then get hot? Why to goalies struggle to stop a puck, then become unstoppable?

Guys get some success and gain confidence, which then breeds further success. When guys struggle, it can lead to squeezing the stick too tight and can make things worse. Also, as with anything, there will be ebbs and flows throughout the season. Canes have been at 39% on the PP since December 1st. That won't last.

 

[hblueridgegal]

 

[WreckingCrew]

Jinx thread, we went 1 for 11 since during the last 3 games (we were 1 for 1 against STL on Jan 6 though)

 

[Svechhammer]

As for why the PP is working.... They keep the puck moving. When we stagnate we see guys just puckhandle to death waiting for a pass to open up with all guys sitting in their spots. What I'm seeing right now is the puck in constant motion, with deliberate passes to open up a passing lane, or someone skating into an open spot to find the lane. We're working to get those cross ice passes and it's paying off.

I'm still iffy on if this will work in the playoffs, when teams have tended to clog the area in front of the net rather than allow themselves to get stretched, so we'll see if this continues. I like what I'm seeing for now, though

Yeah they weren't doing any of this against the Kings. The 4 guys who didn't have the puck on the PP just stood around watching. Lots of station to station passing with no other movement that allowed the PK to set up shop and easily neutralize everything we tried.

You aren't going to have a successful power play if you don't work to create chances. Tonight, there were far to many passengers out there.

 

[AD Skinner]

It was funny they had Williams in the booth talking about how well they’ve been rotating players around on the power play as we all watched the players not doing that