Asst. Coach Matt Shaw Leaving for USHL Job

[Classic Devil]

I can run the power play. Scotty Bowman can run the power play.

The results aren't going to change until we get better power play players.

We had a powerplay unit that featured Parise, Elias, Kovalchuk, and Zidlicky, and it still couldn't score a goal to save its life.

 

[apice3*]

We had a powerplay unit that featured Parise, Elias, Kovalchuk, and Zidlicky, and it still couldn't score a goal to save its life.

Parise sucks on the power play as far as elite scoring forwards go and Zidlicky + Kovalchuk play the same role with the same shooting hand and it didn't mesh. Plus Zajac was out that one year and we couldn't win a faceoff to save our lives.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Parise sucks on the power play as far as elite scoring forwards go and Zidlicky + Kovalchuk play the same role with the same shooting hand and it didn't mesh. Plus Zajac was out that one year and we couldn't win a faceoff to save our lives.

Oh you are bringing back memories of the good old dump play that never ever EVER worked.

 

[Bleedred]

Oates was good aside from the shorties. He was even good under Maclean when we were only scoring power play goals, and none at even strength. In the playoffs I thought he did a bad job at adjusting. More so in the last two rounds cause the first two we were fine.

Most of that was Kovy being unserviceable though I guess. I blamed Oates more than I should have on that one.

 

[apice3*]

Might get flammed for this but I think we should go back to 5 forwards on our PP1 - Zajac at the point, Kovy on the left dot, Elias on the right dot, Bernier/FA signing and Clarkson down low.

PP2 - Zidlicky and Greene up top, Henrique, Zubrus, and Bernier/FA signing as forwards.

 

[NJDevs26]

Oates was good aside from the shorties. He was even good under Maclean when we were only scoring power play goals, and none at even strength. In the playoffs I thought he did a bad job at adjusting. More so in the last two rounds cause the first two we were fine.

Most of that was Kovy being unserviceable though I guess. I blamed Oates more than I should have on that one.

And the fact he had Clarkson taking faceoffs last year lol. That's where the whole lefty-righty business annoyed the heck out of me.

 

[Baemon Severson*]

Crucifying the guy for no reason. He didn't have a training camp and Kovy missed a huge part of the season. It's like his track record in SJ doesn't mean anything to y'all. Good riddance

 

[Semak]

I don't think the PP failed because of personal or the Shaw strategy. I think it failed because they always gave the opponent the same look. Kovy on the left point, Zids on the right, Elias on the right boards and the rest kinda hang out and be the roadies for the band.

It didn't matter if Shaw wanted to shoot more, the same look with no real wrinkles or tricks just never worked when the opponents knew to key on the Elias/Zids pass and Kovy's shot.

Who ever comes in has to give a new look. I'm not buying that a big shot from the point has to come to replace Kovy there. Opponents keying on him on the left circle would open more opportunities than keying on him at the point.

 

[NJDevs26]

Crucifying the guy for no reason. He didn't have a training camp and Kovy missed a huge part of the season. It's like his track record in SJ doesn't mean anything to y'all. Good riddance

When like five different guys have great PP's in San Jose it isn't the coach. When the PP goes from mediocre last year to god-awful bad this year under a different coach here then obviously the coach didn't help. I think it's more a case of just making a bad situation worse but you can't tell me the 'system' we saw for most of the season made any sense. Start off your backhand, waste forty seconds trying to circle around to the forehand all the while you probably flub one pass or they make one agressive play defensively and boom it's cleared - rinse, cycle, repeat. It wasn't the results that were annoying me, it was the idiotic process.

 

[Hockey Sports Fan]

I don't think Oates was good because he kept overrating Parise's creativity. Parise is not the guy who'll "do something" with the puck and make a play. Putting him down below the goal line robbed him of his greatest PP assets in his deflections and rebounds.

Shaw, honestly, in my opinion, ran a pretty good powerplay, but the team was a total mess this year and so were both special teams groups. The Devils were 9th in shots per 60 minute of PP time this season, under Shaw. Prior to that, they were 25th (11-12), 16th (10-11), 17th (09-10). In 08-09 they were 3rd.

I'd love to see Brown brought in from the Canucks. He runs a similar system to Shaw but focuses a lot more on movement and rotation, and using that to find lanes for one-timers. He was on record this off-season as saying Vancouver's PP sucked this year because they had 5 left shots. He definitely won't have that problem here with Kovalchuk, Zidlicky, Zajac, and Clarkson to work with on two units.

Plus, if Oates, Shaw, and Brown all come through New Jersey without fixing the PP, I think then we can finally stop blaming coaching once and for all.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

its not the coach.

its the personnel.

 

[ZadorovNJD*]

I don't even know who this is.

 

[NJDevs26]

Shaw, honestly, in my opinion, ran a pretty good powerplay, but the team was a total mess this year and so were both special teams groups. The Devils were 9th in shots per 60 minute of PP time this season, under Shaw. Prior to that, they were 25th (11-12), 16th (10-11), 17th (09-10). In 08-09 they were 3rd.

I don't really get put much stock in those numbers when - again - the quality of shots stunk all year. Don't give me quantity as an attribute when the scoring's awful.

Besides, they had 350 PP shots in 440 minutes last year under Oates. That's 47.72 shots per 60 minutes. They had 240 PP shots in 281:30 this year under Shaw, that's 51.15 shots. Not exactly a big difference considering we have like six minutes of PP time per game. That's an extra 1/3 of a shot per game, and not even taking into account our extra 5-3 time compared to last year (we had 2:30 more of 5-on-3 in the 48-game season than we did in an 82-game season).

http://www.nhl.com/ice/teamstats.htm?season=20112012&gameType=2&viewName=powerPlayTime

http://www.nhl.com/ice/teamstats.htm?season=20122013&gameType=2&viewName=powerPlayTime

 

[Cheddabombs]

Well I'm probably old enough to be that kids dad, and I don't have light hair but good enough!

There you are!

 

[NJDevs26]

its not the coach.

its the personnel.

It's both but you don't need a superstar lineup to have a great PP either. The Isles' PP schooled teams including us all year, and their forward core was Tavares, Moulson and the seven clowns of Nassau. They did have Streit, then Vishnovsky to man the blueline but we had Zidlicky and Kovy playing point, which shouldn't be the ridiculous downgrade it was.

 

[Bleedred]

There you are!

That guy is a little more handsome than me, but you wouldn't catch me in that shirt he's got on!

It's acceptable though!

 

[Bleedred]

I don't even know who this is.

''How dare you not know who I am! I ran a top 5 PP in San Jose for 3 years! Pretty soon the whole hockey world will know me when I build, and coach Dubuque to a USHL title! Then Sather will really be sorry he passed me over for the Rangers head coaching job!''

 

[Hockey Sports Fan]

I don't really get put much stock in those numbers when - again - the quality of shots stunk all year. Don't give me quantity as an attribute when the scoring's awful.

Besides, they had 350 PP shots in 440 minutes last year under Oates. That's 47.72 shots per 60 minutes. They had 240 PP shots in 281:30 this year under Shaw, that's 51.15 shots. Not exactly a big difference considering we have like six minutes of PP time per game. That's an extra 1/3 of a shot per game, and not even taking into account our extra 5-3 time compared to last year (we had 2:30 more of 5-on-3 in the 48-game season than we did in an 82-game season).

http://www.nhl.com/ice/teamstats.htm?season=20112012&gameType=2&viewName=powerPlayTime

http://www.nhl.com/ice/teamstats.htm?season=20122013&gameType=2&viewName=powerPlayTime

Yeah the quality of shots was bad, but the same was true last year for a stretch and it turned around eventually. Shaw's PP started to work better right towards the end of the season. Even if it's not by much, more shots is an improvement.

 

[Bleedred]

Boucher might be a good choice if he's given complete CONTROL over the power play. And doesn't have to get overruled by Deboer on everything like Kovy on the point, righty/lefty blah blah blah blah, etc.

Power plays needs more ONE-THEE-ONE!

In fact the PK could really use some 1-3-1.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

It's both but you don't need a superstar lineup to have a great PP either. The Isles' PP schooled teams including us all year, and their forward core was Tavares, Moulson and the seven clowns of Nassau. They did have Streit, then Vishnovsky to man the blueline but we had Zidlicky and Kovy playing point, which shouldn't be the ridiculous downgrade it was.

everyone hated Oates here and said he was the reason we sucked on the PP. he goes to Washington and they have the best PP in the league.

Shaw was awesome in SJ, he comes here and the PP sucks.

do you see a common trend?

 

[Bleedred]

I actually thought Oates was good after he cleaned up the shorties. He got our PP up to 14th in the league. Only time it was better than 15th since 01-02 other than with Oates in 11-12 was with Tremblay in 09-10. It wasn't good in the last two rounds of the playoffs with Oates. Mostly due to Kovy being unserviceable, and the insisting on keeping him playing the whole PP.

Maclean was a really bad PP coach. Our PP wasn't even that good in 05-06 when everyone's PP numbers were up. We never cracked above 15th in the league with him, and had a few years in the bottom 10 with him coaching. That was with Niedermayer, and Rafalski still around for a couple of those years. Our PP went from like 8th or 9th in the league in 01-02 to 30th when Maclean came in 02-03. Wasn't a big deal cause we won a cup. Most of the personnel is much different from when Maclean was running it. Just Patty and Clarkson now, and even Clarkson didn't get the most PP time. Maclean's PP was also clutch bad in the playoffs. 06 Canes series, and 08 Rangers series come to mind immediately.

San Jose's PP continues to be in the top 10, and has been every year since 06-07. However you can argue quite easily they have better power play guys than us.

 

[Hockey Sports Fan]

It's both but you don't need a superstar lineup to have a great PP either. The Isles' PP schooled teams including us all year, and their forward core was Tavares, Moulson and the seven clowns of Nassau. They did have Streit, then Vishnovsky to man the blueline but we had Zidlicky and Kovy playing point, which shouldn't be the ridiculous downgrade it was.

Visnovsky and Streit are head and shoulders above Zidlicky when it comes to playing the PP. Visnovsky was a 70 point defenseman just 2 years ago, and Streit put up 47 on an inconsistent Islanders team last season. The two of them in addition to Tavares would be (should be?) enough to power almost any team's PP into top-10 status.

I'm not trying to rag on Kovy/Zidlicky/Elias but they're just not at the same level. I'd like to see a system where Elias is allowed to roam a little more and feed Kovy/Zids. Zajac was real good at the point too, when Maclean put him there.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

Kovy SHOULD be at the same level if he was used correctly.

 

[CerebralGenesis]

Now people are saying they Oates was good while he was here? What level of revisionist history is happening?

 

[Classic Devil]

Now people are saying they Oates was good while he was here? What level of revisionist history is happening?

The problem is it's always hard to say whether a powerplay coach was any good based on the results, when we've gone through half a dozen of them and they've all failed to produce impressive results.