Does anyone else get giddy thinking about a PP with McDavid, Draisaitl, Nuge, Bouchard, and a net front presence type guy down the road? Then we can roll out Bear and Yamo on the second unit.
Our PP was already the best in the NHL in decades with Klefbom running the point and he’s so predictable.
Funny enough, I think the PP is better in it's current setup with a LH shot up high.
With the puck near always starting with RNH on the LW half-wall, you're essential giving him 3 shooting options to go to with McDavid, Draisaitl, and Klefbom, long with a net front presence to draw in another defender. Essentially they create four 2 on 1s, all featuring a shooter ready for a quick shot, or the net guy ready to pounce on a rebound.
This means teams either give RNH all the time in the world to make a play, or (more likely) have the guy covering Klefbom slide over to pressure him.
If that happens, Nuge should be able to pass to a wide-open Klefbom (think how many times with saw that behind the back pass), who is ready for a one timer, or to slide the puck over to Drai, or to play it into the slot for McDavid.
A defender who was covering McDavid (most likely) or Draisaitl will rotate to Klefbom, and that's where chaos ensues: the second one of those two is left uncovered.
Even if the guy that went to RNH is quick enough to rotate over to McDavid, that still leaves Klefbom free to pass back Nuge, letting him walk in and get a quick shot on net, or exploit the re-positioning defenders and pass to an open McDavid or Draisaitl.
That's the beauty of the current PP: even if it rotates in purely one direction (LW to RW), they still always exploit the PK by having one more (dangerous) option available than what the PK can cover.
If that's Bouchard, Bear, or Green up top, that's one less onetimer for teams to respect at the start of the play, and they'll do a better job collaping on the slot and taking away the seams this PP loves to exploit later in the play.
If you want to add a RH shot to the top unit, it will likely come at RNH's expense. However I'm not sure that would be an upgrade, especially as Nuge is already pretty damn good at getting a quick shot away from the LW during the few times the play goes RW to LW; plus his chemistry with the other two is near unrivalled.
Plus imo, having a LHS there makes it a bit harder on the goalie. With Nuge, the puck is ~2m closer to the boards vs. when a RHS is setting up there, and that's an extra couple if degrees that goalies need to cover. This is why we've seen Nuge end of with a lot of cheeky goals this season. His quick release catches a lot of goalies cheating off the post and their angle as they try to anticipate the pass to McDavid or Draisaitl.
My ideal PP's going into the playoffs:
Chiasson
Nuge-McDavid-Draisaitl
Klefbom
Neal
Green-Yamamoto-AA
Bear