Confirmed with Link: George Gwozdecky to leave Lightning to pursue other opportunities

[LTIR Trickery]

I don't put the blame on Gwoz for that, its been happening before he got here - can take the horse to water but you can't make him drink, so to speak.

Hate to see him go, great hockey mind, super nice.

 

[These Are The Days]

I think the woes come from not playing the 1-3-1 PP setup properly.

The two posters above touched on not having an extra Dman on the blueline. This is because we set up in the 1-3-1 scheme, an extremely aggressive setup; in the right hands.

1 near, or behind the net. (1)

1 near left circle/halfboards, 1 in middle of ice, 1 on right halfboards. (3)

1 at the point. (1)

One would think with our possession players, this would be an absolute lethal PP. I'm a huge fan of this setup when done correctly. Passing is a must in this system, which is why that's all our players ever seem to do. The problem is, they do it to the point where they pass up shots.

Man on the point gets the puck. Really, he has only 2 options -- left halfboards, or right halfboards. Can't really fling it to the middle guy, or the guy down low. Why? Passing and shooting lanes are likely clogged by the PK. So he passes to Right Halfboards.

Right halfboards is also limited, and likely being harassed by a PKer. How do we get lanes open? MOVE. This was the biggest problem on the PP this year, besides the lack of shots. Zero movement. When we moved on the PP, it looked deadly. This is a huge reason why it came alive in the playoffs.

So Right Halfboards man MOVES, and opens up space for himself, and draws some PKers to him. He dishes to man by the net, who dishes it in the blink of an eye to the man in the middle for a goal, or a supremely high scoring chance.

The third thing wrong with our PP. Our passes were too predictable, and slow. Zippy, aggressive passes are needed. Stun the PK. Make them unsure where to turn their heads next. That indecisiveness leading to a poke check from the PK and loss of possession? Can't have that. Don't sit there with your puck on your stick. Make something happen by either moving or passing. If passing lanes aren't open, move. If you can't move, pass to someone who is open -- there will always be someone open on a 5 on 4, eespecially if you have 2 defenders drawn to you.

tl;dr: Our PP sucked because 1.) They passed up shots, 2.) they didn't move, and 3.) they didn't pass quickly enough or aggressively enough.

1-3-1 PP is awesome when used correctly. We didn't use it correctly this season.

We aren't even using the right players in the right spots on this either. To your point the players themselves are too indecisive to be using this set up nor do they move their feet enough. My biggest complaint is that I'm sick of the easy clears because we just have 1 guy back there.

The one guy back is always Hedman, who can't seem to decide where to pass it or where to shoot it. He likes to take his time and diagnose what the best move is going to be. The passes he makes are ALWAYS predictable because he can only pass it in two directions. And you KNOW he's gonna pass because the shooting lanes are clogged. So he passes it and the whole defense shifts to the half wall where the next Lightning player winds up either spinning in circles or dumping it back for a bad pass.

We've been forcing Stamkos at the hashmarks for a one-timer in the slot that never gets there nor becomes a quality chance. You have the undersized Johnson and Palat (while strong on their skates and good at handling in tight spaces) getting harassed along the walls because when they don't move their feet enough they have to operate and nearly turn it over and when the pressure's too much they gotta pass it back to Hedman who again does the predictable. Palat and Johnson are NOT always pressured though. The passing lanes get clogged, the shooting lanes get clogged and whaddaya know? Back to Hedman!

Meanwhile friggin Stamkos is bagning his stick in the slot but no shot from Hedman is gonna get through nor will a centering pass. The only person that seems capable of making a pass through the crease is Kucherov.

And then there's Callahan... the one guy who will walk right into the goalie's kitchen and break all the dishes. He will get in someone's face and score a dirty one. Due to the constant lack of execution on our 1-3-1 that's the best way we are going to score anything at all and Callahan is usually wandering around like a lost dog not knowing what to do with himself and the manpower advantage becomes more of a 4 on 4.

The entire power play is discombobulated. And there is yet any mention of how Stamkos is no longer in his one-timer position along the left circle. We scored when we used that setup and for some reason it's just not cool anymore.

Coop needs to scrap the 1-3-1 it's been 2 1/2 years with him and the guys can't get it right under him. The last time we ran a successful 1-3-1 PP was when Boucher first took over and we had the sense to use the 91-timer for 85% of our PP goals. By the end of it the other team scored more goals on our own power play than we did because figgin St. Louis on the point may as well been a 1 on 0 or 2 on 0 depending on how many were coming on the rush.

 

[TheDaysOf 04]