Ok, I feel like this has become a big enough problem to warrant its own thread at this point. At this point the Blues PP sits at #23 in the NHL at 16.7% which honestly to me is much higher than I thought.
There are 3 major things that I am seeing that are the biggest concerns. Followed by what I would do to correct it.
#1. Our zone entries, simply put, are trash. We simply over abuse a play where after usually several neutral zone drop passes that one player gets the line drops the puck to another player just inside the line. Now if the defending team is giving us the line this is not a problem as we are then able to set up in the zone easily. However, if the team is standing up at the line, which is what teams are doing against the Blues, that player is then stuck with only one option. That option is to dump the puck behind the net, which is easily predicted and gathered by the opposing teams defenseman who is the first to puck since none of the Blues players are able to enter the zone with speed.
My Solution. First we need to identify what strategy they are using if they are backing in and surrendering the line, great. Enter the zone and setup our PP ( the setup of our PP is another concern for later ). If they are standing us up at the line then we need to get center ice and dump the puck in synchronization with our forwards hitting the blue line with speed. You send three forwards in deep, two forwards to the strong side to overpower the defenseman retrieving the puck and the third one to the opposite to cutoff the reverse.
#2. Our PP setup. On the rare occasion we actually gain possession in the offensive zone we seem to favor what I call a 2-2-1. 2 men straddling the point (defenseman), one man on the half boards (Tarasenko), one rover on the soft side and one who plays net front presence or man down low (Schenn/Schwartz). The problem with this is that this drives the team to play on the perimeter. We work the puck to Tarasenko who tries to penetrate the middle and shoot. Often a shot lane doesn't appear and he is forced to peel off and dish it back to the point. Then they either try again or work it to the other half boards after going D to D. Whether it is Schenn or Schwartz they will act like they are trying to penetrate to the middle, which fools no one, and then they dish it back to the defense. Rinse, repeat until we either turn it over or one of Pietrangelo or Tarasenko take a perimeter shot that is either blocked or saved.
My Solution. I would like to see us setup a system where we move two men down low on either side of the net. The main goal would be to work the puck down low and then attack the net. You have one the opposite side defenseman move down low into the slot for rebound opportunities. Now I know that the other team will adjust to handle this kind of attack but any kind of adjustment is going to take attention off our shooter on the half boards eventually opening more space. Right now the other teams don't have to respect the man down low because we don't use them effectively.
#3 The Pace and Predictability. I don't know what happens to our players when we go on the PP but for some reason we slow down the tempo of our game to a snails pace. All of our players stand still waiting for a pass. The pass itself is slow and undisguised. It makes everything we do unbelievably predictable. I am at a point now where I can call what we are going a solid 3-5 seconds before our players do it.
My Solution. This is the easiest one to solve in my opinion. Play with the same pace and urgency that we do when we are at even strength. Our players need to be decisive the moment the get the pass. Far too often our players get the puck, stop and survey and then react. This gives the defending team every chance they need to cover the appropriate lane. The puck movement speed has to improve in order to get the defending team moving. Moving quickly becomes scrambling and I am firm believer that opportunity can be born through chaos.
These are my thoughts but I would love to hear the rest of the boards because as I said when I started, this has been become a big problem.
There are 3 major things that I am seeing that are the biggest concerns. Followed by what I would do to correct it.
#1. Our zone entries, simply put, are trash. We simply over abuse a play where after usually several neutral zone drop passes that one player gets the line drops the puck to another player just inside the line. Now if the defending team is giving us the line this is not a problem as we are then able to set up in the zone easily. However, if the team is standing up at the line, which is what teams are doing against the Blues, that player is then stuck with only one option. That option is to dump the puck behind the net, which is easily predicted and gathered by the opposing teams defenseman who is the first to puck since none of the Blues players are able to enter the zone with speed.
My Solution. First we need to identify what strategy they are using if they are backing in and surrendering the line, great. Enter the zone and setup our PP ( the setup of our PP is another concern for later ). If they are standing us up at the line then we need to get center ice and dump the puck in synchronization with our forwards hitting the blue line with speed. You send three forwards in deep, two forwards to the strong side to overpower the defenseman retrieving the puck and the third one to the opposite to cutoff the reverse.
#2. Our PP setup. On the rare occasion we actually gain possession in the offensive zone we seem to favor what I call a 2-2-1. 2 men straddling the point (defenseman), one man on the half boards (Tarasenko), one rover on the soft side and one who plays net front presence or man down low (Schenn/Schwartz). The problem with this is that this drives the team to play on the perimeter. We work the puck to Tarasenko who tries to penetrate the middle and shoot. Often a shot lane doesn't appear and he is forced to peel off and dish it back to the point. Then they either try again or work it to the other half boards after going D to D. Whether it is Schenn or Schwartz they will act like they are trying to penetrate to the middle, which fools no one, and then they dish it back to the defense. Rinse, repeat until we either turn it over or one of Pietrangelo or Tarasenko take a perimeter shot that is either blocked or saved.
My Solution. I would like to see us setup a system where we move two men down low on either side of the net. The main goal would be to work the puck down low and then attack the net. You have one the opposite side defenseman move down low into the slot for rebound opportunities. Now I know that the other team will adjust to handle this kind of attack but any kind of adjustment is going to take attention off our shooter on the half boards eventually opening more space. Right now the other teams don't have to respect the man down low because we don't use them effectively.
#3 The Pace and Predictability. I don't know what happens to our players when we go on the PP but for some reason we slow down the tempo of our game to a snails pace. All of our players stand still waiting for a pass. The pass itself is slow and undisguised. It makes everything we do unbelievably predictable. I am at a point now where I can call what we are going a solid 3-5 seconds before our players do it.
My Solution. This is the easiest one to solve in my opinion. Play with the same pace and urgency that we do when we are at even strength. Our players need to be decisive the moment the get the pass. Far too often our players get the puck, stop and survey and then react. This gives the defending team every chance they need to cover the appropriate lane. The puck movement speed has to improve in order to get the defending team moving. Moving quickly becomes scrambling and I am firm believer that opportunity can be born through chaos.
These are my thoughts but I would love to hear the rest of the boards because as I said when I started, this has been become a big problem.
