Proposal: Let's talk about the Power Play

[Headshot77]

The 16th ranked PP% this year is the Seattle Kraken at 21.2%. We're second worst at 14.3% above only the Flyers at 12.7% (lol). We've had 36 PP goals so far in 252 opportunities. The league average in the same number of opportunities would have 252 x 0.212 = 53 goals in that same spread.

Do you think the additional 17 goals we would have with a league average powerplay would make a difference in the standings? How many more points would we have? I'm sure you can comb through all the games and find 1 goal losses where we had tons of opportunities and find enough standings points to comfortably secure us the WC2 or even Metro 3 spot. So I did!

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Glancing through this spreadsheet I wanted to find every instance of a 1 goal loss where we had 2 or more powerplay opportunities and scored on zero of them. Here's the list:

11/22 NYR 0-1 L - 0 PPG 5 PPO
11/24 BUF 2-3 L - 0 PPG 2 PPO
11/28 NSH 2-3 OTL - 0 PPG 2 PPO
12/02 PHI 3-4 OTL - 0 PPG 5 PPO
12/04 PHI 1-2 OTL - 0 PPG 3 PPO
01/11 VAN 3-4 OTL - 0 PPG 4 PPO
01/13 CAR 2-3 OTL - 0 PPG 4 PPO
02/10 WPG 1-2 L - 0 PPG 3 PPO
02/20 NYI 4-5 OTL - 0 PPG 3 PPO
03/24 COL 4-5 OTL - 0 PPG 2 PPO
03/30 CBJ 3-4 OTL - 0 PPG 2 PPO
04/08 TOR 2-3 OTL - 0 PPG 5 PPO

That's 9 OTLs and 3 regulation Ls that could have been turned into 2 points if we scored one measly PPG. 15 standings points. Now there's no guarantee that those 17 additional goals came within these 12 critical games. 17/82 is about one additional goal every 5 games. So I'm sure it would flip about 1/5th of those games into wins. This also doesn't account for one goal losses where the other team scored an empty netter.

That's it. I didn't really have any other point other than showing how many points we've pissed away with our anemic PP. I'd go out on a limb and say we'd probably have about 5 more standings points if we had a simply league average power play.

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[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Listen buddy... they spent most of the year blaming Evgeni Malkin for it. And there's only one of him. I dunno what else you expect them to reasonably do? Coach?

 

[GilbertSeinfeld]

It's not like they are near the top of the league in short handed goals allowed, at least.

 

[Ragamuffin Gunner]

Fire Sully.

 

[SEALBound]

I think there are indeed enough games where getting a powerplay goal would have shifted enough games in our favor to have us firmly in a playoff spot. Maybe not clinched just yet but certainly 5+ points above #9.

 

[BusinessGoose]

 

[Pens1566]

It stinks.

Discuss.

 

[HandshakeLine]

It stinks.

Discuss.

 

[CascadiaPenguin]

Fire Sully.

From Pixar? Cold.

 

[Mr. T]

It eats my shit and hair.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

It eats my shit and hair.

Is that what happened to your dome, Chad?

As for the poop thing. Well... if you are what you eat and all that it explains things.

 

[HandshakeLine]

I think the power play woes kind of fall into to two parts, tbh. The first is zone entries, which is not a thing I thought I'd be saying about a team with Crosby, Letang, Malkin, and Karlsson on it. They just do not gain the zone well.

The second major problem is... well, everything else once in the zone.

 

[Mr. T]

Is that what happened to your dome, Chad?

As for the poop thing. Well... if you are what you eat and all that it explains things.

Coach Reirden said I need to shave it and leave the clippings in a Ziploc outside of his office door every Tuesday night.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

I think the power play woes kind of fall into to two parts, tbh. The first is zone entries, which is not a thing I thought I'd be saying about a team with Crosby, Letang, Malkin, and Karlsson on it. They just do not gain the zone well.

The second major problem is... well, everything else once in the zone.

Yeah entries have been a huge issue for a WHILE. Hell a lot of this stuff has been an issue for a while.

WTF does this team even do during training camp? I mean besides lock young players out of any meaningful part of the process?

 

[Icarium]

32nd in zone entries on the PP says it all.

 

[GilbertSeinfeld]

Yeah entries have been a huge issue for a WHILE. Hell a lot of this stuff has been an issue for a while.

WTF does this team even do during training camp? I mean besides lock young players out of any meaningful part of the process?

They take pictures for the goal scoring gifs.

 

[HandshakeLine]

32nd in zone entries on the PP says it all.

please be positive, we're at least not 33rd (in a 32 team league).

 

[Icarium]

On the bright side we are third in the league in xGF on the power play! 63.86 imaginary goals as opposed to 36 actual ones. Things are bound to revert to the mean any day now! Right? Right?!?

 

[Rudy Russo]

He is working on fixing the powerplay for the reminder of the season.

 

[Buddy Bizarre]

It's not like they are near the top of the league in short handed goals allowed, at least.

Yea be very curious what we are compared to the mean for this year.

 

[molon labe]

My favorite aspect of the power play this year is one of the side-effects (self inflicted) of the horrid zone entries:

Skating slow as shit to go back and get the puck from the goalie, going behind the net for no apparent reason, acting like we're going to break out only to drop the puck back pointlessly, then make our one and only move to enter the zone in dishing to one of the corners. Somehow this doesn't ever catch the opposition off guard and it's almost as if you can defend the Penguins by standing literally still.

If there's one thing I don't want from the opposition PKers it would be them having to use their legs or get tired. Successful PPs are rarely formed when the opposition is tired out there. Course there's shooting the puck too. You can't just shoot because that's against organizational code. 1-3 cute passes minimum and preferably a Letang or Geno ice tap wherein they aggressively want the puck only to pass it immediately back to whomever passed it to him. The only player more allergic to the puck on the PP than those two (once they have it) is Sid. He seems to want to be anywhere else than on the man advantage.

 

[Jesse]

The problem for me is the new way of penalty killing in the NHL. The "power kill" is sort of the soup du jour right now. It's not uncanny to see most teams align themselves with an ultra-aggressive pressure at the top of the structure.

The Penguins umbrella inherently feeds into this. The ultra aggressive pressure forces the exterior part of the middle 3 to push up ice to the blueline. What you end up with is this heinous looking 4-1 stack. Four guys playing patty-cake at the blueline in the face of token pressure.

If you ran a 2-1-2 and situated players lower towards the goal line, you'd remove the ability of the PK to aggressively pressure your roof.

Something like this would totally change the focal point of the structure and give Sidney Crosby a chance to operate from his most lethal area of alignment.

 

[DesertedPenguin]

The problem for me is the new way of penalty killing in the NHL. The "power kill" is sort of the soup du jour right now. It's not uncanny to see most teams align themselves with an ultra-aggressive pressure at the top of the structure.

The Penguins umbrella inherently feeds into this. The ultra aggressive pressure forces the exterior part of the middle 3 to push up ice to the blueline. What you end up with is this heinous looking 4-1 stack. Four guys playing patty-cake at the blueline in the face of token pressure.

If you ran a 2-1-2 and situated players lower towards the goal line, you'd remove the ability of the PK to aggressively pressure your roof.

Something like this would totally change the focal point of the structure and give Sidney Crosby a chance to operate from his most lethal area of alignment. View attachment 849364

1,000 percent.

The Penguins have a structural/philosophical approach problem, not a talent one.

Sullivan says he doesn't want to take the stick out of the hands of his gifted players, but they need help, and that comes through structure.

Not only would I like to see the design of the power play within the offensive zone change, but I'd like to see less player movement in favor of quicker puck movement, as well as a permanent net front presence.

If not a 2-1-2, I'd go for a 1-3-1 diamond - net front, bumper, point man, flanked by players in the two faceoff circles who can slide up and down the boards.

 

[Sorry]

please be positive, we're at least not 33rd (in a 32 team league).

 

[Icarium]

Guentzel moving to the team with the second best power play in the league and thriving on their first unit after looking appallingly bad on our power play more often than not this season is further proof that coaching is the issue, not the personnel.

Not only would I like to see the design of the power play within the offensive zone change, but I'd like to see less player movement in favor of quicker puck movement, as well as a permanent net front presence.

They have net front presence.... on the second unit only. It's bewildering especially during the recent surge where screening the goalie even strength has helped us immensely.