It was pretty well understood that Recchi was the architect of our PP during his tenure.
And there's
this:
Maybe he didn't really do much beyond opening the doors for line changes, but I think he probably had a pretty big hand in our PP's design, considering his departure coincided with our PP going from pretty much dead last in most metrics to middle of the pack / above average. Look at last year's improvement vs the 2 years under Recchi:
32nd in shots/60 to 11th
31st in HDCF/60 to 11th
30th in xGF/60 to 9th (yeah I know expected goals model isn't great for the PP but still)
29th GF/60 to 17th
The eye test more than supports all of these numbers.
It was a static high zone umbrella with really poor entry schemes. Both halfwall guys were typically positioned well above the circles to support the point man and keep passes across the umbrella short and low risk. We had an almost useless bumper man in the mid slot, and a net front presence. Our halfwall players were too high to be consistently dangerous scoring threats, and we didn't typically use our low forward as a passing option (to threaten the high to low to slot tic tac toe one timer). It was designed as a perimeter shooting PP that doesn't create opportunities for a lot of seam passes below the top of the circles.
It was pretty much 3 guys playing catch above the dots, and then eventually settling for a medium to long distance shot with the hope that we'd get a bounce or a rebound. Every once in a while one of the halfwall guys would take the puck lower and open up the bumper for a shot, but that was rare, as I'm pretty sure Recchi had a rule that we had to complete 3 passes to the point man before we could try to score.
Here's an example of what it looked like when set up:
Here's another. You can see how sometimes the net front guy would step to the side as an option, but it that play was rarely used as anything more than a means to recycle the puck back to the 3 guys in the umbrella:
Under Brunette, we were so much more dynamic and aggressive, using the point man as an actual shooting threat instead of a facilitator for short passes, and getting our forwards much lower in the zone. Here is an example of a PP goal from last year:
Huge difference, right?
Under Recchi, we probably had the most predictable PP in the league. And the worst part of all that predictable perimeter passing and shots through traffic is that it's just asking for shorthanded goals against.
There's a reason the Devils had arguably the league's worst PP for those 2 years.
At 5v4 from 2020-21 thru 2021-22, the Devils ranked:
32nd in shots/60
29th in GF/60
30th in CF/60
31st in HDCF/60
32nd in GA/60
29th in GF
32nd in GA
31st in goal differential
And it's not like we lacked offensive firepower while Recchi was at the helm. We still had elite puck carriers and distributors in Bratt, Hischier, and Hughes + a mix of other skilled PP guys like Mercer, Zacha, Sharangovich, Tatar, and Palmieri. And we had several decent PPQB options during his tenure in Hamilton, Severson, Subban, and Smith.
The fact that we had such great puck handlers / distributors made Recchi's approach even harder to understand. Guys like Bratt and Hughes are elite halfwall forwards who have the skill, quickness, and creativity to a ton of damage. But Recchi built the PP as if Hughes, Hischier, and Bratt were Pascal Dupuis, Troy Brouwer, and Milan Lucic (guys with heavy shots but no hands or creativity).
With all the talent available to the Blue Jackets, I really really hope we don't see this sort of PP again. It might work a bit better because they have Laine and Werenski, who are better distance shooters, but it probably won't matter too much. The best PPs are the ones that create odd man opportunities below the dots at high frequencies. Keep the puck in the hands of guys like Gaudreau and Johnson, and put them close enough to the net where they are actually a threat to score.
On a related note, I don't understand why teams keep putting JG13 so high on the PP (CBJ was guilty of this last year, and Calgary did this a lot as well). Like yeah he can make plays and facilitate but he's not a serious threat to beat a goalie from the blue line, and his ability to find loose pucks and clean up around the net/slot is all world. If Recchi is running the PP I guarantee he will be used as an umbrella man.
