Blues hire Jim Montgomery as an assistant coach

[Blueston]

Shot in the dark but if they’re all the same kind of PP Specialist then what type of player are we missing to make them work

Law of small samples. PP will be fine.

 

[Ted Hoffman]

Faulk wasn't ever deployed in a PP specialist role here, so your complaint is kind of pointless...

Yes, here he hasn't been put on as a PP specialist - but he filled that spot in Carolina. By season:

14-15: 7-13-20, tied with Jordan Staal for 1st in goals and led the team in points
15-16: 12-5-17, led the team in goals with J. Staal 2nd at half that
16-17: 4-9-13, still 4th on the team in PP points and T-3rd in PP assists
17-18: 3-16-19, led the team in PP assists and 2nd to Teravainen in PP points
18-19: 6-4-10, T-3rd on the team for PP goals and 5th for PP points

We didn't need him in that spot last season. Should we throw him there now? Well, he's a right-hand shot like Pietrangelo so it puts everyone back in their "normal" spots like they were used to. He doesn't have to bomb shots away from the point, but if he can move the puck and give direction to others that would help. If Parayko isn't going to use his shot like we were told he was going to do and which by now he should know is a major weapon, put someone out there that can set the table for everyone else.

IMO it still comes down to moving the puck. We're slow at it, we tend to keep it to one side of the ice and do all our work there to set something up, and so whoever's on the other side is a spectator. When we do finally work it over there, it's a 2-pass thing and it gives everyone on the defense time to slide over and get in position. Did I mention guys are standing around a lot? Yeah, there's that too - which makes us predictable and allows the defense to play a generally passive box. Changing players is rearranging chairs; the entire system needs to change.

 

[MissouriMook]

...

IMO it still comes down to moving the puck. We're slow at it, ...

This, to me, is the biggest reason our PP struggles when it does, and it has been the case for a long, long time.

If you watch how other teams' PP is defended you see far more space being given to the player with the puck if it is known that this player can send a crisp, tape-to-tape pass to an open man at any time. Contrast that to how our PP is generally defended, and you will see pretty much all teams defend our power play units much more aggressively and giving them far less space. I believe this is because we have a reputation of struggling to make quick decisions and crisp passes, a belief that, to me, certainly passes the eye test.

 

[Blueston]

This, to me, is the biggest reason our PP struggles when it does, and it has been the case for a long, long time.

If you watch how other teams' PP is defended you see far more space being given to the player with the puck if it is known that this player can send a crisp, tape-to-tape pass to an open man at any time. Contrast that to how our PP is generally defended, and you will see pretty much all teams defend our power play units much more aggressively and giving them far less space. I believe this is because we have a reputation of struggling to make quick decisions and crisp passes, a belief that, to me, certainly passes the eye test.

A lot of this comes down to confidence and familiarity. When guys are in synch they move it quickly and it goes in back of net.

 

[Ranksu]

Listening to the play by play the other night Panger was saying Perron had mentioned some adjustments needing to occur from having a RH PPQB in Petro to having a LH PPQB in Krug. I'd infer passes occur when a shot was previously taken, shots are taken when passes were previously due to body mechanics and positioning of Krug vs Petro standing in the same spot.

Hoffman is obviously a new wrinkle because he is most definitely not Tarasenko and can't be used the same way on the PP. If memory serves, his PP production involved a decent number of one timers - which our PP hasn't been able to utilize effectively for years (lacking effective personnel). Perron on PP1 takes that role, so Hoffman is trying to adjust to new systems and roles maybe?

Faulk wasn't ever deployed in a PP specialist role here, so your complaint is kind of pointless...

Give it another handful of games. They didn't get preseason games to work kinks out and the compressed schedule isn't giving a normal amount of practices to dedicate to improving the problem either.

So we can tackle this situation on mid season until then it's not system problem and its excuse players didnt have time to training.

 

[mike1320]

So we can tackle this situation on mid season until then it's not system problem and its excuse players didnt have time to training.

Well, yeah. You have players and coaches who have never interacted before and had almost zero training camp and no pre-season games. You can't go all knee jerk reaction in a season like this.

 

[Brockon]

So we can tackle this situation on mid season until then it's not system problem and its excuse players didnt have time to training.

I'm saying before you condemn the coaching staff, give them ~15 games to work with...

Same as I said about the defence in a separate thread... Don't go screaming the sky is falling until we've seen 10+ games played.

 

[Ranksu]

I'm saying before you condemn the coaching staff, give them ~15 games to work with...

Same as I said about the defence in a separate thread... Don't go screaming the sky is falling until we've seen 10+ games played.

 

[Xerloris]

I have no idea if Montgomery has anything to do with our PP but he needs to be fired just in case.

 

[Ranksu]

I have no idea if Montgomery has anything to do with our PP but he needs to be fired just in case.

Well he is our PP coach. Nobody isnt talking firing him, but something need to be done fix our PP.

We have too much talent to suck this badly at PP.

 

[Ranksu]

We are 5th worst at PP @Brockon NHL Stats


OT, but we are 7th worst Team at PK too. That isn't Montgomery job.

 

[GoldenSeal]

I'm going to be fair and say that the numbers of special teams are skewed because we're playing the same teams multiple times within the division and nothing outside of it. This team could be ten times better than the ridiculously asinine sample size we have. Didn't think of that til this morning.

 

[Ranksu]

Avalance are best team at PK.

 

[Ranksu]

6th worst at PP with 14% and PK 8th at PK 74.2% (PK too isn't Montgomery jos, but same to add here too.)
NHL Stats

I'm saying before you condemn the coaching staff, give them ~15 games to work with...

Same as I said about the defence in a separate thread... Don't go screaming the sky is falling until we've seen 10+ games played.

18 games played.

 

[mike1320]

18 games played with roughly 2/3'rds of your top end talent out with injuries. Yeah, let's blame the coach.

 

[Brockon]

6th worst at PP with 14% and PK 8th at PK 74.2% (PK too isn't Montgomery jos, but same to add here too.)
NHL Stats




18 games played.

Because I advocated waiting for an adequate sample size before critizing anything in depth, you're going to @ me every single post you make in this thread?

Grow up man.

I said give the team a chance to show any disturbing trends we saw were more than a fluke chance. We're 18 games in, now anything you think you see is potentially justified - go scream the sky is falling if that's what you want to do.

I'm troubled by certain trends I'm seeing via highlight recaps, but I'm also in the midst of some in depth training again - I don't have an excess of time on hand, I haven't watched a game in weeks now. I'm not going to go in depth based on a 9 min extended game recap because there's generally more to it than the replay shows.

 

[Ranksu]

18 games played with roughly 2/3'rds of your top end talent out with injuries. Yeah, let's blame the coach.

(So me cases Schwartz has played 1st PP,but since we have Hoffman Schwartz would most likely play 2nd PP), Thomas, Bozak play on 2nd PP unite. Only Tarasenko would play 1st PP.

 

[mike1320]

(So me cases Schwartz has played 1st PP,but since we have Hoffman Schwartz would most likely play 2nd PP), Thomas, Bozak play on 2nd PP unite. Only Tarasenko would play 1st PP.

We get it, the Blues should hire you as an advisor to right the ship and bring in a new coaching staff.

Montgomery was a fantastic coach who unfortunately had a substance abuse problem and needed a change of scenery . I have faith in his skill set as a coach and I think (in time) he'll prove to be a valuable asset to the team.

 

[mike1320]

So, do they still need to fire this guy or what?

 

[GoldenSeal]

Look, I get the whole 'give the guy time' stuff. Even with injures, we can EASILY ice a top PP team with the players that are healthy, so... why aren't we?

The PP coach isn't working. Either make him fix the problem or find someone who can. Not asking anything more than the guy to do their job. And they're not.

 

[mike1320]

Look, I get the whole 'give the guy time' stuff. Even with injures, we can EASILY ice a top PP team with the players that are healthy, so... why aren't we?

The PP coach isn't working. Either make him fix the problem or find someone who can. Not asking anything more than the guy to do their job. And they're not.

The power play has been on fire for the last week+ and playing with a ton of confidence. I wouldn't change a thing!

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

Look, I get the whole 'give the guy time' stuff. Even with injures, we can EASILY ice a top PP team with the players that are healthy, so... why aren't we?

The PP coach isn't working. Either make him fix the problem or find someone who can. Not asking anything more than the guy to do their job. And they're not.

Did you stop watching a couple weeks ago? The PP has been at 50% the last few games.

 

[Renard]

Mike Hoffman was brought in to be the shooter on the power play, right?

So are they getting him the puck? Or aren't we gaining the zone? Who is bringing the puck up ice, and is he failing? Is O'Reilly losing the faceoffs to open the power play?

Maybe it's a player failure rather than a strategy failure.

 

[Ted Hoffman]

Did you stop watching a couple weeks ago? The PP has been at 50% the last few games.

Since you made this comment, we're 2-for-20 on the PP. Way to jinx everything.

 

[Ranksu]

Mike Hoffman was brought in to be the shooter on the power play, right?

So are they getting him the puck? Or aren't we gaining the zone? Who is bringing the puck up ice, and is he failing? Is O'Reilly losing the faceoffs to open the power play?

Maybe it's a player failure rather than a strategy failure.

Its player failure not strategy problem.

We are in 35 games 23rd spot at PP with 18.6%

Ofc this isnt Montgomery problem, but we are 26th at PK with 76.6%

Good team should have around 100 if you ad PP + PK, but we get only 93.2.

And we aren't allowed to criticize our PP coach Montgomery. @Brockon