nik jr
Registered User
- Sep 25, 2005
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Does anyone know how PP's developed and changed over time? How the structure and general play of PP changed? Or how the role of PP QB developed?
I have been trying to understand it, and i figured some posters here must be more knowledgeable about it.
Even Strength Power Plays
Phrases "power play" or "power attack" seem to have been used in the modern sense of 5 on 4, 5 on 3 and 4 on 3 play, but also for attacks where 4 or 5 players joined the attack at ES.
It seems that "power play" originally meant 4 or 5 man attacks, instead of the usual rushes of 1, 2 or 3 men; but that since it was much easier to use these "power plays" when the other team was shorthanded, "power play" became synonymous with 5 on 4 or 5 on 3 or 4 on 3.
4 or 5 players would attack, instead of 2 or 3 staying back to play D.
Did Art Ross' Bruins create Power Plays?
That column also mentions point position and d-men playing up at the blueline, which are important aspects of modern offense. I don't think i have seen anything else about playing the point, though. It may not have been common until the '40s. I may be completely wrong, but i get the impression that players were closer to the net in early/mid '30s PPs, and did not really play at the blueline.
It does seem that Art Ross was central in the creation and popularization of "power plays," but i don't know if that also applies to man advantage PP's.
Another paper credited Boston:
Ross credited:
Daily Boston Globe and Lewiston Evening Journal could be partisan toward Boston, since they are local papers, so crediting Boston with the creation of "power plays" may not be accurate, but it is not meaningless, and Dink Carroll's column in Montreal Gazette about "pressure hockey" seems to corroborate.
I have not yet found anything about Boston's "power plays" from before the rules on passing were changed in '30.
Several newspapers attributed Boston's poor '32 season to less frequent use of "power plays," which were said to have kept Boston an elite team. Boston decided to go back to using them for the '33 season, and apparently acquired Nels Stewart partly to use in "power plays." Boston's record was much better in '33.
Extra-man Power Plays
I have not found the use of the phrase "power play" in '30 (or '31).
a description of PP goals from '30:
There are many examples from later in the '30s of the phrase "power play" used for 5 on 4, 5 on 3, 4 on 3 situations for various teams:
only 4 players, all F's are mentioned on those PP's. Previous article, from 20 days later, says Seibert played all PP's, so maybe only 4 players were mentioned b/c Seibert's presence was assumed to be known. Or Seibert may have played a defensive role on those PPs.
I know some PP's used 5 F's. TML and DRW used 5 F's (Goodfellow was also a d-man, though). Boston used Shore and Chicago often used Seibert. I found a report from '33 finals in which Ching Johnson plays on PP.
DRW's PP was apparently very strong in the '30s, and helped them win Stanley Cups in '36 and '37. In the late '30s, Jack Adams said that the PP is the most effective weapon. Adams appears to have practiced PP's often.
overpass pointed out that Goodfellow may have played the point on PP.
It is generally nearly impossible to say from old play by play descriptions whether the puck was moved around as in modern PP's. Passing to a shooter, then scrumming for the rebound seems to be very common, but i can't tell if that pass occured shortly after entering the offensive zone.
Who was the First Power Play QB?
I don't have a good idea of when and how the role of PP QB was developed.
Based on a couple of things i have read in old papers (which i cannot find right now), i thought Eddie Shore was the 1st PP QB i had encountered in reading, but i cannot be sure, since "power play" also referred to ES play, and i don't really know Shore's role on PP.
Shore seems to have initiated "power plays," but i have not seen anything about him playing like a modern QB. I know Shore sometimes shot the puck in, hit the opposing d-men on the forecheck and passed to F's. Shore was consistently described as the key player in Boston's "power plays."
If it is true that Art Ross created the PP, PP QB must have been created later, or at the same time. Of course, forward passing was illegal in the offensive zone just a few years before these articles i am quoting. PP QB is probably nearly impossible without forward passing.
The first player i am aware of who is known as a PP QB is Doug Harvey. But who before him was a QB?
I have been trying to understand it, and i figured some posters here must be more knowledgeable about it.
Even Strength Power Plays
Phrases "power play" or "power attack" seem to have been used in the modern sense of 5 on 4, 5 on 3 and 4 on 3 play, but also for attacks where 4 or 5 players joined the attack at ES.
It seems that "power play" originally meant 4 or 5 man attacks, instead of the usual rushes of 1, 2 or 3 men; but that since it was much easier to use these "power plays" when the other team was shorthanded, "power play" became synonymous with 5 on 4 or 5 on 3 or 4 on 3.
only a few penalties in that game, and obviously, DRW were not shorthanded for 60 minutes.Calgary Daily Herald: 3-29-1933 said:Flashing from behind after their opponents had scored 2 quick goals in the 2nd period, Detroit's amazing Red Wings ousted the big Maroons team from the Stanley Cup hockey playoffs last night, winning the deciding contest 3-2. A capacity crowd of 14500 saw Detroit take the round 5-2 and go into the Stanley Cup semi-finals against New York Rangers.
Maroons, trailing 0-2 as a result of a Red Wing victory in Montreal last Saturday night, put on their power plays for 60 minutes, ripping up and down the ice of Olympia Arena to bowl over the frantic Detroit defence.
TML had no PP's during the last period. end of the game when trailing is a time whenSt Petersburg Times: 4-6-1938 said:No one, however, could have greatly improved on Moore's performance. Though he came in cold, he turned back all but one of the highly-favored Leafs' thrusts, and turned them back time and again during a series of last-period power plays.
4 or 5 players would attack, instead of 2 or 3 staying back to play D.
only 2 penalties in the game, both to Boston, so power play refers to ES massed attacks.Montreal Gazette: 2-12-1934 said:The old Boston Power play was powerless against Maroons Saturday night at the Forum. Master Stew Evans slapped a goal past Tiny Thompson in the 2nd period, and that was good enough for a 1-0 Montreal victory, despite the best efforts of Eddie Shore, who started power play after power play after Evans tally.
....
Time and time again they were thrown back by the power plays, but they invariably broke away for dangerous rushes on Thompson and only the Boston goalie's sensational work combined with some bad luck prevented Maroons from getting a couple of extra tallies.
....
Immediately after this goal, Eddie Shore trotted out the old power play, and it was a continual menace as 4 and 5 man attacks swept in on the Maroon net from the middle of the second period until the end of the game, but the Montreal defences, and Dave Kerr, in particular, withstood these assaults without a lapse. It was Kerr's 5th shutout of the season.
Montreal Gazette: 2-10-1932 said:A tie seemed impending when Art Ross, manager of the Bruins, gave the signal for the power play which so often had been ridiculed and so often had proved a boomerang.
Down the ice came Shore, carrying the puck and driving it into the corner where Weiland hurried after it and, quick as a flash, passed it out in front of the net where Shore took a shot.
only 2 penalties in that game, and they were matching majors. power plays here again mean massed attacks at ES.Ottawa Citizen: 11-29-1933 said:The Boston defence star opened the power play by driving at the enemy net as he swept through center. Four of his mates trailed him, but they were not heeded because Eddie fought his way in back of the Ottawa net, pulled the puck away from Syd Howe, and poked it out. The rubber struck goalie Bill Beveridge's skate, and the game was decided when it was deflected into his cage.
...
The Bruins countered with a 5-man attack that seldom got over the Senators' blue line, although during the last minute, Marty Barry missed a wide-open net on a power play.
...
5 minutes to go and the Bruins resumed their old-time power tactics. Shore started the play by firing into the Ottawa zone as he cut through center. Smith followed him down and there were 5 Bruins milling around in enemy territory when Shore battered his way through Bowman and followed the rubber around the Ottawa net. He passed out and the puck hit the goalie's skate and was deflected into the cage to put the Bruins out in front.
Saskatoon Star-Phoenix: 10-11-1933 said:The forward pass arrives in amateur hockey next season, with its accompanying "power plays," or whatever you prefer to call net-ganging attacks.
Did Art Ross' Bruins create Power Plays?
"Power play (at ES)" and "pressure hockey" may be the same, or closely related. "Pressure hockey" seems to be a very important innovation towards modern hockey. I think even after the forward pass in the offensive zone was allowed, it was very common that d-men stayed back in the neutral zone and were not involved in the offense. "Leave his position at the defence and come up near the opposing team's blueline" corroborates this.Dink Carroll in 2-23-1942 Montreal Gazette said:Shore The Inventor Of Pressure Hockey?
Earl Seibert sums up the players' reaction to pressure hockey with the same neat efficiency that he displays on the ice. He says, "The forwards love it--the defencemen hate it."
The defencemen hate it, the big Chicago rearguard star explains, because they have to do the back-checking for the forwards, and the forwards love it because they no longer have that long haul back the length of the ice when their checks break away. Credit, or blame, depending on your point of view, for the new game, he pins squarely on the shoulders of the great Eddie Shore, though he thinks wily Art Ross may have had a hand in it.
"Shore used to leave his position on the defence and come up near the opposing team's blueline," big Earl recalls. "He'd only stay there for a minute or two at a time, putting on a little power play of his own. That was the way it started and I remember that Art Ross got so that he's bang a stick against the fence when he wanted Shore to move up. But I believe Shore moved up there in the first place on his own, and later Ross endorsed the move."
That is probably the truth about the origin of pressure hockey, as great individual stars have a habit of leaving their imprints on a game. Frank Nighbor, a forward with a particular genius for defensive hockey, was the cause of the kitty-bar-the-door style that prevailed for so many years. Shore, a defenceman with a brilliant offensive spark, may just as readily been the cause of the switchover to the new type of game.
Suggests Anti-offence Rule
Seibert doesn't think pressure hockey is here to stay. In his opinion, the fans don't like the new game and that is what will defeat it in the long run. He even has his own idea of what will develop.
"When all the clubs were playing defensive hockey," he pointed out, "the fans squawked all over the circuit. So they introduced the anti-defence rules. They're not always enforced, but they're there. According to the rules, only three men are allowed behind the defending blue line before the puck is carried into that defensive zone. It seems to me the next step will be anti-offence rules. They won't allow more than a certain number of players on the attacking team to go over the defending team's blue line."
Personally, he doesn't find it tougher to play the new game. He is always careful when playing "points" (that is the term defencemen use to describe their position when playing up on a power play) to keep moving. He skates at an angle and figures that helps him to turn with a forward and prevent him getting loose on a breakaway. In the old game, a defence player had to start from a standing position and he found the starting and stopping a bit wearying. Moving around as he does in the new game, his muscles are always loosened up and he doesn't tire so quickly.
That column also mentions point position and d-men playing up at the blueline, which are important aspects of modern offense. I don't think i have seen anything else about playing the point, though. It may not have been common until the '40s. I may be completely wrong, but i get the impression that players were closer to the net in early/mid '30s PPs, and did not really play at the blueline.
It does seem that Art Ross was central in the creation and popularization of "power plays," but i don't know if that also applies to man advantage PP's.
Another paper credited Boston:
Lewiston Evening Journal: 12-7-1932 said:The Boston Bruins, the team which put the power play in hockey, and nearly ruined the NHL with it, are back on the warpath again serving adequate notice that they are one of the many teams to beat in the championship race.
Ross credited:
but that may mean ES power plays.Daily Boston Globe: 3-21-1934 said:the forward pass in the East and the 'power play' is generally credited to him (Art Ross)
Daily Boston Globe and Lewiston Evening Journal could be partisan toward Boston, since they are local papers, so crediting Boston with the creation of "power plays" may not be accurate, but it is not meaningless, and Dink Carroll's column in Montreal Gazette about "pressure hockey" seems to corroborate.
I have not yet found anything about Boston's "power plays" from before the rules on passing were changed in '30.
Several newspapers attributed Boston's poor '32 season to less frequent use of "power plays," which were said to have kept Boston an elite team. Boston decided to go back to using them for the '33 season, and apparently acquired Nels Stewart partly to use in "power plays." Boston's record was much better in '33.
Extra-man Power Plays
I have not found the use of the phrase "power play" in '30 (or '31).
a description of PP goals from '30:
No word or phrase for PP, and the description of forgetting D and swarming up the ice makes me think it was not usual.Ottawa Citizen: 2-12-1930 said:Both of these epochal Boston goals were scored with Ace Bailey of Toronto sitting in the penalty box for tripping Shore. With the enforcement of this penalty, the Bruins forgot all about defence and swarmed up the ice.
There are many examples from later in the '30s of the phrase "power play" used for 5 on 4, 5 on 3, 4 on 3 situations for various teams:
"Passing the puck around before setting up the defenceman" sounds like a modern PP.Montreal Gazette: 3-13-1936 said:Conacher's penalty left a gap for 2 power play goals in the 1st period, and on Earl Seibert's goal, 4 assists were given, to Mush March, Paul Thompson, Doc Romnes and Gottselig, as they passed the puck around before setting up the defenceman. Gottselig's goal was aided by March, Seibert and Thompson.
Chicago Tribune: 11-22-1938 said:Seibert has been playing nearly 40 minutes a game. The fact that he is used on all power plays makes him one of the league's outstanding defensemen.
Both phrases, "power plays" and "power attacks" are used.Saskatoon Star Phoenix: 11-2-1938 said:(Coach) Stewart is certain the Hawks will show cast improvement in one type of play which repeatedly made them look bad in the past--power attacks.
Last season when a member of the opposing team was in the penalty box, the Hawks consistently failed to show a scoring punch. Stewart promises it will be different this season. He plans to use 2 power play combinations. One will be made of Thompson, Romnes, March and Gottselig. The other will be formed by Northcott, Robinson, Blinco and Dahlstrom.
only 4 players, all F's are mentioned on those PP's. Previous article, from 20 days later, says Seibert played all PP's, so maybe only 4 players were mentioned b/c Seibert's presence was assumed to be known. Or Seibert may have played a defensive role on those PPs.
I know some PP's used 5 F's. TML and DRW used 5 F's (Goodfellow was also a d-man, though). Boston used Shore and Chicago often used Seibert. I found a report from '33 finals in which Ching Johnson plays on PP.
DRW's PP was apparently very strong in the '30s, and helped them win Stanley Cups in '36 and '37. In the late '30s, Jack Adams said that the PP is the most effective weapon. Adams appears to have practiced PP's often.
overpass pointed out that Goodfellow may have played the point on PP.
That such a play was considered an "ice masterpiece" that would be recorded in history books probably means that this modern sounding play was very rare. I have the sense that pointmen played closer to the net at that time than they do now.Border Cities Star: 3-31-1934 said:Ebbie Goodfellow, blond-haired Ottawa boywho had led an uncertain career most of the Winter, bouncing from centre to defense and defense to centre, was the hero of the piece. He started and finished a play which will go down in the hockey books as one of the greatest of modern ice masterpieces. He stopped the puck as a frantic Toronto player tried to rifle it out of Toronto territory. He fired it into Toronto territory to another mate, Herbie Lewis. That mate moved it on to Johnny Sorrell, a confederate, with the same gangster intentions. Then back it came to the Old Master, Ebenezer Goodfellow, who a few weeks ago wasn't sure whether he was a defenseman or a centre, or even how long his job was going to last. Ebenezer took command of the little rubber biscuit, and deposited it where it did the most good. He dropped it into the twine at George Hainsworth's left side with all the power his 185 pound frame could muster.
....
(description of the same play):
Goodfellow intercepted the puck just inside the Toronto blue-line when Levinsky made a weak attempt to shoot it up the ice. Goodfellow pushed the puck up the ice to Lewis. Sorrell got it behind the Toronto cage and flipped it in front. Goodfellow was camped 10 feet out from the nets and fired into the nets at Hainsworth's left side.
It is generally nearly impossible to say from old play by play descriptions whether the puck was moved around as in modern PP's. Passing to a shooter, then scrumming for the rebound seems to be very common, but i can't tell if that pass occured shortly after entering the offensive zone.
Who was the First Power Play QB?
I don't have a good idea of when and how the role of PP QB was developed.
Based on a couple of things i have read in old papers (which i cannot find right now), i thought Eddie Shore was the 1st PP QB i had encountered in reading, but i cannot be sure, since "power play" also referred to ES play, and i don't really know Shore's role on PP.
Shore seems to have initiated "power plays," but i have not seen anything about him playing like a modern QB. I know Shore sometimes shot the puck in, hit the opposing d-men on the forecheck and passed to F's. Shore was consistently described as the key player in Boston's "power plays."
That and other articles make me think Shore did not play like a modern PP QB. Old newspapers from Boston are generally not available for free online, though, so i don't have access to the best sources.Lewiston Evening Journal: 1-6-1944 said:Hollett rates as the NHL's most versatile player, slightly above Busher Jackson, also of the Bruins. Both can play every position except goalie and do it almost equally well.
But the Boston offense is built around their famed power play, which demands a slam-bang rushing defenseman like Eddie Shore. And without casting the slightest reflection on Dit Clapper, Jack Crawford, Earl Seibert and the other standout rear-guardsmen of today, Pat Egan is the nearest thing to Shore. Adams admits that Egan did not fit into his hockey scheme. Jack wouldn't let Pat rush at will and the player resented being leg-ironed. Ross never cares what his players do as long as they help win games.
If it is true that Art Ross created the PP, PP QB must have been created later, or at the same time. Of course, forward passing was illegal in the offensive zone just a few years before these articles i am quoting. PP QB is probably nearly impossible without forward passing.
The first player i am aware of who is known as a PP QB is Doug Harvey. But who before him was a QB?