Fix the power play

[EliteGoaltending]

New idea for PP1. Aho on the point QBing, Faulk on the left half wall, Svech on the right half wall, Ferland in the high slot, Zykov parked in front of the net. Thoughts?

At least on paper...

 

[My Special Purpose]

My latest thinking on the PP: if you have two lines clicking -- and we do -- why not just throw out Aho-Ferland-TT, then Staal-Foegele-Williams with regular defense pairs?

 

[Primetime8]

My latest thinking on the PP: if you have two lines clicking -- and we do -- why not just throw out Aho-Ferland-TT, then Staal-Foegele-Williams with regular defense pairs?

Worked last year before Pesce got hurt IIRC. I remember Slavin and Pesce out there with regular forward lines for a couple games. Or maybe I'm just drunk already. Idk.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Worked last year before Pesce got hurt IIRC. I remember Slavin and Pesce out there with regular forward lines for a couple games. Or maybe I'm just drunk already. Idk.

I think Peters sometimes put them out when there was a faceoff near the end of a PP so that it wouldn't be 4 forwards when the other team went back to full strength. Slavin only averaged 37s PP TOI/GP and Pesce only had 17s PP TOI/GP.

 

[Lempo]

Am I the only one who looks at this drawing and wonders why RBA doesn't just get the eagles to fly the puck into the goal?

The Eagles' take-it-easy approach doesn't cut with Rod, at all.

 

[AD Skinner]

One of these nights it's bound to start clicking- like last night

 

[Kevs Security]

All we need is Aho and Ferland, opponent's goaltender takes care of the rest. Am I right? Lets go Canes!

 

[Drivebytrucker]

It's no coincidence that the Power Play has started to look better without Staal on it.

Jordan Staal is not a power play guy....

 

[CandyCanes]

It's no coincidence that the Power Play has started to look better without Staal on it.

Jordan Staal is not a power play guy....

But but butttttt this is the year J. Staal finally breaks out offensively.

 

[Drivebytrucker]

But but butttttt this is the year J. Staal finally breaks out offensively.

True. One Day Jordan Staal will score 30 goals in the NHL.

And on that day, my wife is going to let me have a threesome with her and her best friend.....

 

[CandyCanes]

True. One Day Jordan Staal will score 30 goals in the NHL.

And on that day, my wife is going to let me have a threesome with her and her best friend.....

I hope her best friend isn’t a guy

 

[SlavinAway]

I hope her best friend isn’t a guy

Maybe OP does...

 

[geehaad]

I hope her best friend isn’t a guy

Maybe OP does...

But but butttttt

 

[The Faulker 27]

Maybe OP does...

 

[mhart1]

I'm watching TB at Avs and my good how good TB powerplay looks. The movement of players and the puck looks awesome...

 

[Lempo]

True. One Day Jordan Staal will score 30 goals in the NHL.

And on that day, my wife is going to let me have a threesome with her and her best friend.....

I'm pretty sure Jordan Staal is bro enough to respond well if you put that on a sign and go to a game.

 

[MinJaBen]

I'm pretty sure Jordan Staal is bro enough to respond well if you put that on a sign and go to a game.

Is Jordan his wife's best friend? I didn't know that was what the Staal family foundation did...but I guess the name makes sense now.

 

[MinJaBen]

Somebody get Rod a subscription to the Athletic right now...



An interesting conclusion from the data:

Looking at the share of shots attempted by defencemen this year, we see that the teams letting their defencemen shoot more tend to have lousy power plays.

(cool chart here)

There’s Carolina, Nashville, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Chicago and Florida, all letting their defencemen attempt more shots than league average. If we limit our look to 4F1D, Carolina’s numbers are particularly wild.

(second cool chart here)

If you look at the teams that aren’t having their defencemen shoot all that often, you’ll see a lot of the league’s better power play units over the past few years – Pittsburgh, Boston, Buffalo, Toronto, Washington and Winnipeg all pop up. On those teams, the defenceman’s job is more to create space than it is to shoot. What this suggests to me is that there’s probably more room for the league as a whole to improve at 5-on-4. Teams that aren’t scoring but are burning a lot of shot attempts by defencemen might want to reconsider whether that’s the best approach available.

 

[geehaad]

It would seem that the issue isn't whether a defenseman is taking the shot, but where the shot is coming from. The farther away, the less of a chance it has to go in (unless Ward is in net), and defensemen are usually the farthest away.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Do you think that with the success Faulk had on the PP a few years ago, the team started designing the PP around getting the puck to Faulk for a shot? And now that's still where they are?

Or that they don't have enough skill / ability to do something else with regularity?

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

Do you think that with the success Faulk had on the PP a few years ago, the team started designing the PP around getting the puck to Faulk for a shot? And now that's still where they are?

Or that they don't have enough skill / ability to do something else with regularity?

I think they are trying to play a more traditional PP but don't have the horses for it, so it inevitably ends with a Faulk shot.

They're all "playing their position" right now, mimicking the top PPs in the league. Anyone notice that those top PPs (Washington, Tampa) are good at that because they have a ton of traditional skill at those positions? Excellent passers, excellent shooters. Experts at opening up defenses, making dangerous plays that open room for others, etc. We have none of those, so we pass around on the perimeter for awhile (giving the illusion of working the defense but in reality doing very little), then after the requisite 10 passes Faulk just says "screw it" and fires away.

Honestly, they should do something entirely unique that fits their skillset. I've seen this team hem in opponents better than almost anyone I've ever seen at even strength. Why can't that translate to the PP? This is a team without the traditional talent, that's succeeding at 5v5 because of a tenacious forecheck and a solid cycling game. Is there a way to somehow translate that energy to the PP? Like, a crazy amount of movement, no set positions, etc? A giant, energetic cycle. Minimal change to the way they play at 5v5, except now there's one less guy on the other team.

It might fail spectacularly and just be a dumb idea from a guy on a message board, but it might also build on the identity of this team, continue the high energy even when the PP fails, and allow the team to take the good things that they do at even strength and boost the "conversion rate" simply because there's more room out there to dominate and finish.

I'm not discounting the idea that things we do at 5v5 may not entirely work 5v4 because of the overly defensive nature of the opposing PK, lack of transition game, etc. I'm not suggesting just pretending it's even strength. It's more the idea that in a season where we seem to be bucking every trend, it may be time to get creative and design something that plays to the team's strengths, which decidedly isn't a traditional PP setup.

 

[The Faulker 27]

I'm sure they're looking at the data on where (as in location) the majority of the even strength goals are coming from, how, and by who at this point. They should have data that helps them design, and structure plays. I don't see any reason taking the successes at even strength, and applying some of that to the PP wouldn't be a viable option.

I think we're more hamstrung once we get to our set positions because that inherently let's PKers keep us to the perimiter, and all they have to do is crash the net once a shot comes in from a perimeter location. Unless it just beats everyone, or takes a crazy bounce or it's one of the few times we have a decent deflection, you have 4 PKers and a goalie going for a puck, and will likely recover, and send it out.

Maybe they don't get this sciency, but If there is data on the types of shots, and at what angles produce the most rebound or second chance opportunities, I would be seriously looking at incorporating this in practice. Reinforce accuracy, importance of angle, and having players at the net for 2nds and 3rds.

I don't know. Just spitballing.

 

[AD Skinner]

I don't have any kind of data to back this up but my gut says that since the pk team can ice the puck with impunity it gets exponentially harder to outwork them. all they need to do is beat you to a puck, rim it out, and 10-15 seconds are killed while the pp team gets it back and sets up again. When the team in their own d zone has to advance you have a ton more opportunity to hassle and take the puck away

 

[emptyNedder]

New year—same song.

I liked one thing I saw in preseason and that was Aho below the goal line on the power play.
Unit 1
Gardiner

Teravainen Hamilton

Svech
OPP. Goalie
Aho

Then the 2nd unit needs POPP (inspired by DMV):

Pesce

Dzingel right-shot rookie

Niederreiter
OPP. Goalie
Haula

*I tried to put the names so they resembled the spacing on the ice, but the post autocorrected.

 

[Big Daddy Cane]

I was encouraged to see Brind'Amour put Svech up high on PP1 in the absence of Dzingel in the final preseason game. I've made my feelings known about the Finns on Unit 1, even in this thread.

I'm all for the Lindholm play as a means of puck movement down low, but I'm not sure they can make it work on both units with 1 RHS forward in the lineup at full health. It's awkward with a LHS below the goalline passing to a LHS in the slot. If the play is positioned to the left of the net, the player down low has to catch the pass from up high on the forehand across his body. If it's positioned on the right, the player in the slot has catch the pass on the forehand across his body; the passer has to put the puck through more traffic to get it there than if it were a RHS in that spot. Quick passing is imperative for that play.