I think you're being fair here. It's hard to know exactly what's happening without being at practices and being on the bench or in the locker room. It just appears like the plan is, get Tavares the puck. Try for one-timer at the point. If that fails, get Tavares the puck. Then there's that hesitation on what to do next.
It could very well be a poorly executed powerplay or a bad strategy that's trying to be implemented so the passing lanes don't open up properly.
Backstrom having Ovechkin is a huge advantage, no doubt. His demeanor with the puck never changes though, whether Ovechkin is being taken away or not. He knows with certainty where he wants the puck to go. Our PP looks like we're waiting to see where the puck should go.
In this brief video, we'll see Backstrom carry the puck toward the middle of the ice slowly. He starts coasting toward the point and sucks two defenders with him because if they don't, he's going to waltz into the slot and rip a shot. The moment those two defenders come out to him, he slips a pass down to the goal line, which is then passed to Brouwer for the goal in front. Phaneuf bites on the pass down to the goal line that allows Brouwer to get open. That's because the passing is accurate and decisive. The entire Capitals team knows where that puck is going once it gets moved down to the goal line like that. And if Phaneuf doesn't bite, the pass would likely go to the wall back to Backstrom (he's already in position to receive that pass when the goal is scored), and they'd set up another play.
On this one they're going to Ovechkin, as per usual. Johansson has the puck on the wall, instead of the goal line this time. Backstrom moves up from the corner to switch places, which draws a lot of defensive attention to that side of the ice. It also leaves the point WIDE open. Backstrom
quickly gets the pass to Green at the point, who quickly moves it to Ovechkin for that open one timer. He misses. What's important to note, at least to me, is at this time there are two players right in front of the goalie. If Ovechkin hits the net and the rebound comes to the slot, there are two guys ready to bang it in. If he misses wide, Backstrom is already on the far wall waiting for the rim around. Even the movement from where Johansson and Backstrom started is impressive and worth noting. Johansson went from the top of the circle/wall area, to the goal line, to the front of the net. Backstrom went from the goal line, to the hash marks on the wall, to well above the circle on the wall. That's a lot of deliberate movement for 3 or 4seconds of hockey.
After the miss, Brouwer is able to get the loose puck behind the net and feed it to Backstrom, who is now at the bottom of the circle going toward the goal line. All four defenders are at the hash marks or below, leaving the point wide open again. Backstrom holds the puck for about 1 second before slipping a soft pass back to Green, he closes in like he's going to shoot to attract the defenders toward him and dishes the puck off to Ovechkin for the one timer. When the second one timer is released, there are two Capitals back in front of the net, with Backstrom very close to the goal line and wall in case it misses wide again.
Nobody on these powerplays is holding the puck for longer than a second or two after the passing sequence starts (when the set play is being run). It's a well oiled machine, very deliberate in their approach.
Now for us.
This one is ultimately successful, but I think it illustrates the differences between how the PP's are operating.
Tavares wins the draw back to the point. Boychuk slows up, looks briefly for a shot, passes to Hamonic. Hamonic looks briefly for a shot, passes to Tavares. Tavares holds for a second and swings it behind the net to Okposo (I think).
He looks out for an open late and immediately passes back behind the net to Tavares. Tavares comes out from the corner a bit and tries a sneaky shot toward the front of the net.
When he lets this first shot go, Hamonic is raising his stick because he wants to rip a one-timer there. That bothers me. It bothers me because it likely means that Hamonic isn't sure where the puck is headed next. Maybe Tavares tried the slick shot on his own, I couldn't say for sure, but I know we see this type of thing a lot.
We miss the net, Boychuk retrieves and it gets worked back around the net to Lee who looks to Tavares. Tavares goes back to Hamonic, who goes to Boychuk, who goes back to Hamonic, who goes back to Tavares for the goal. The only time I see anything decisive or resembling a set play is when Hamonic is dead set on getting the puck to Tavares right before the goal. That's it. Every other time someone is handling the puck they survey the ice, look for a shot/pass, then defer to someone else. It's worth noting that this is a 5 on 3 PP! Maybe that's why they're less decisive, but I really don't think so. I think it's because they have loose systems and structures, not definitive plays.
There aren't many videos on youtube from the past season, so I can't really link anything else here to demonstrate it. Most are 4 on 3's in OT which don't really help us much.
The PK is interesting. I wrote about their woes here
http://alongtheboards.com/2015/03/greg-cronin-islanders-penalty-kill/, right as it was starting to turn the corner.
I think what happened with the PK is that Cronin used or uses an outdated system. It allows too much time for the opposition to create time and space, and ultimately allows them to run plays without any pressure on them. What I believed changed was the structure on the zone entries. The team became much more aggressive when the opposition tried to get the puck into the zone, and they really pushed the issue and it creates more chaos for the other team.
If the team was successful in getting the puck into the zone, we still saw the Czech Press, but it was still more aggressive than what we had seen earlier in the year. I do not believe we played the PK particularly well once the opposition was set up (even with being slightly more aggressive), even when our stats were trending upwards. I think that the puck retrieval was better on missed shots and not allowing teams back into the zone after clearing attempts is what helped our PK numbers at the end.
Many posters talked about how they thought we were using a a box formation near the end of the season. That's because of the aggressiveness of the PK. That top defender was chasing way outside what we traditionally saw earlier in the year, and ended up forming a box after he moved. That wasn't the base structure/strategy though, because any time the puck went to the point in the middle, we saw the patented 1-1-2 formation right down the middle, which you don't see in a box.
I've sufficiently derailed this thread now, so hooray!
