Powerplay issues

[FlyRoutine]

So, whats wrong with our Powerplay?

I didnt watch all games that past season by any means, so theres probably room for bias from my point of view, but when I watched I couldnt remind/recognize a significant progression up until now since the beginning of the 19/20 regular season and thats highly concerning to me.
Since 18/19 season the team even improved significanlty from a talent/skill percpective.

Overall the PP% from 18/19 vs 19/20 seems to have improved a bit 18.9% (20th) vs 20.8% (14th), which is suprising to me.
Anyway, considering the personal of our roster, the Powerplay of the Flyers is still far too bad in my humble opinion.

Is it bad luck? (I am afraid not) Or are the problems more profound? (I am afraid so)

I am not that big into advanced stats. Maybe someone can provide some advanced stats or deeper insight on that matter?

Cheers

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[C0DITH]

They keep trying to do the same shit over and over. So many passes through the middle. Price has seen pretty much every single shot (which means he is going to stop it). We need traffic and noise in front, and pucks on net. Getting Price frustrated.

 

[BringBackHakstol]

They just circulate at the top of the PP and one of those pieces at the top does not have the creativity and passing skills to penetrate the PK box.

Sanheim would do better in that position, or, they need to try and work the puck from low more often

 

[FlyRoutine]

They keep trying to do the same shit over and over. So many passes through the middle. Price has seen pretty much every single shot (which means he is going to stop it). We need traffic and noise in front, and pucks on net. Getting Price frustrated.

Good point. I see it the same way. Getting more pucks on the net is obligatory.
Still, you cant get pucks on the net if you even struggle on the zone entries and establishing the Powerplay in the offensive zone like the Flyers did a quite few times this post season now.

 

[Rebels57]

They don't have any go-to shot options, so there is nothing that is like second nature. They used to have that Giroux to Jake to Simmonds play, or the Giroux to Simmonds to Jake or Schenn play, or the Ghost one-timer. They did it so often that it began easy to execute. They have nothing like that at the moment, and that's mostly on Therrien. He's done a horrendous job. It looks like the unit doesn't even have a coach, and that's probably because Therrien is an arrogant lazy bum.

 

[Evergreen]

Well last night with TK on the right side wall was bad because he’s a righty and not a shooting threat from that side. So he either has to skate the puck toward the middle to shoot, which makes it obvious what he’s doing, or he has to slide it across to G to shoot, which Danault anticipated every time and got a stick on it.

 

[FlyRoutine]

To be fair, I think the Flyers made huge improvements in almost any part of the game this past season.

Still, one of the biggest flaws this teams got imho shows this series.
They struggle against physical teams and having such a bad PP in the post season, where the physical part of the game becomes even more important is a huge problem to me. With such a bad powerplay the opposing team proverbially gets invited to establish a playstyle that the Flyers empirically struggle against anyway and obviously you would like to avoid such scenarios.

The PP needs to get fixed, otherwise I cant see this team going deep this year because of this. Especially if they play the Isles next, should we win the series against the Habs of course.

They improved their physical play in game 3, so thats a start. But the PP is still extremely underwhelming.

 

[FlyRoutine]

They don't have any go-to shot options, so there is nothing that is like second nature. They used to have that Giroux to Jake to Simmonds play, or the Giroux to Simmonds to Jake or Schenn play, or the Ghost one-timer. They did it so often that it began easy to execute. They have nothing like that at the moment, and that's mostly on Therrien. He's done a horrendous job. It looks like the unit doesn't even have a coach, and that's probably because Therrien is an arrogant lazy bum.

Sure, we lost Simmonds and Schenn (to an extend Patrick who was a success on the PP too). But we still got Giroux, Voracek, Coots etc who also have been a big part of the sucess of the PP. We also got JVR which one of his biggest strengths is being the net front presence on the PP and I am not witnessing any of this.
So I dont see how our PP regresses like that with such a roster.

 

[deadhead]

They don't have any go-to shot options, so there is nothing that is like second nature. They used to have that Giroux to Jake to Simmonds play, or the Giroux to Simmonds to Jake or Schenn play, or the Ghost one-timer. They did it so often that it began easy to execute. They have nothing like that at the moment, and that's mostly on Therrien. He's done a horrendous job. It looks like the unit doesn't even have a coach, and that's probably because Therrien is an arrogant lazy bum.

Personnel is the primary problem, Giroux and Voracek haven't scored goals on a regular basis on the PP since 2014-15, yes, that long ago.
Schenn and Simmonds were the two best PP goal scorers and no one has replaced them, especially Simmonds.

TK can shoot, but he doesn't look comfortable on the PP, slow decision making and some questionable decisions.

Giroux, Ghost and Voracek are play makers who'd rather pass, put those three together and it's really pretty until the other team intercepts a pass and sends the puck down the ice.

JVR likes to hang in the circle box and take close in shots, but teams collapse and take away that pass, same with Couts, who hasn't been able to get a stick on a pass in that area without it being hacked out of his hands.

This is where Patrick, Lindblom and eventually Brink can help in the future, the first two will go to the net, and Brink is a play maker with a first class wrist shot.

It would really help if Allison and/or Ratcliffe become true PFs.

 

[TheKingPin]

I rewatched the first period PPs.

MTL is aggressive. They keep 2-3 guys high and 1-2 guys low. The guys high hawk the blue line and the low guys are well above Price. I think you can take advantage as the my don’t seem to defend in front of Price even if we have a guy right there. They are left alone. I would take advantage of their aggressiveness by getting behind them right down the middle. Don’t worry about going outside to gain entry. Just take it right down the middle and try and drive to the net, pass it to a guy driving to the net, shoot for rebounds for the guy driving to the net. I think you can gain entry with speed and some skill right down the middle and take it all the way on Price.

 

[FlyRoutine]

Personnel is the primary problem, Giroux and Voracek haven't scored goals on a regular basis on the PP since 2014-15, yes, that long ago.
Schenn and Simmonds were the two best PP goal scorers and no one has replaced them, especially Simmonds.

TK can shoot, but he doesn't look comfortable on the PP, slow decision making and some questionable decisions.

Giroux, Ghost and Voracek are play makers who'd rather pass, put those three together and it's really pretty until the other team intercepts a pass and sends the puck down the ice.

JVR likes to hang in the circle box and take close in shots, but teams collapse and take away that pass, same with Couts, who hasn't been able to get a stick on a pass in that area without it being hacked out of his hands.

This is where Patrick, Lindblom and eventually Brink can help in the future, the first two will go to the net, and Brink is a play maker with a first class wrist shot.

It would really help if Allison and/or Ratcliffe become true PFs.

Yeah, the absence of Patrick and Lindblom is quite noticable on that matter.

I still believe the Flyers should get out far more out of JVR on the PP though.

 

[Rebels57]

Yeah, the absence of Patrick and Lindblom is quite noticable on that matter.

I still believe the Flyers should get out far more out of JVR on the PP though.

Therrien has no clue how to utilized the strengths of our players on the PP.

 

[FlyRoutine]

Therrien has no clue how to utilized the strengths of our players on the PP.

Seems like it...

 

[Striiker]

Simple. We have terrible coaches.

-Provorov is absolutely awful on the PP, but they refuse to remove him.
-Ghost is benched for no reason.
-TK is also awful on the PP, but they have him getting in Giroux and Voracek's way.
-We have no net-front players. JVR should be on PP1.
-Because of all the above, Giroux has no options and that means all the opponent has to do is make sure he can't shoot and the PP is over.

We have 3 top tier PP players and all three are being sabotaged by incompetent coaching.

 

[renberg]

Yeah, the absence of Patrick and Lindblom is quite noticable on that matter.

I still believe the Flyers should get out far more out of JVR on the PP though.

If JVR isn't going to play on the PP, he might as well not even be dressed for the game.

 

[Rodu58]

If Montreal is going to stack the line, and Price will play any dump ins, dump it into the trapezoid?

 

[Adtar02]

Switch the two units. Get the first away from Weber. That will help. And get more movement Also don’t let price play the puck. Unless it’s bouncing in on him with players crashing the net.

Also need more movement. When the pp gets like this players need to skate and pass quicker. Thing will open up once that happens the pp always gets better. Been this way since Giroux became good on it.

 

[Beef Invictus]

Therrien has no clue how to utilized the strengths of our players on the PP.

It's this. He doesn't know what to do with the players he has out there, and hasn't figured out there are better options that could be used.

 

[Deadpool8812]

If Montreal is going to stack the line, and Price will play any dump ins, dump it into the trapezoid?

That is another issue. They keep dumping it in to places where Price can play it. In the times where they dumped it in the corners so Price couldn't play it, we were able to forecheck and get some sustained zone time.

I don't get the stupidity of this team

Also, you dont dump it into the trapezoid...that's where he can play it

 

[Lord Defect]

Hell, it might even be better to dump it on net and let price cover it for an offensive face off.

 

[Rodu58]

Confidence too. No one looks like they want the puck. Puck carrier gets pressure and he just panics and throws it away

 

[Deadpool8812]

Hell, it might even be better to dump it on net and let price cover it for an offensive face off.

So AV can throw Thompson out there to lose the offensive zone draw?

 

[FlyRoutine]

Simple. We have terrible coaches.

-Provorov is absolutely awful on the PP, but they refuse to remove him.
-Ghost is benched for no reason.
-TK is also awful on the PP, but they have him getting in Giroux and Voracek's way.
-We have no net-front players. JVR should be on PP1.
-Because of all the above, Giroux has no options and that means all the opponent has to do is make sure he can't shoot and the PP is over.

We have 3 top tier PP players and all three are being sabotaged by incompetent coaching.

Not sure if we should blame all this solely on the coaches. Sure, they could utilize their players better (especially JVR), but they also do some things right and losing Lindblom and Patrick while also losing Schenn and Simmonds is probably hard to deal with as a coach.

But yeah, I do believe some line changes should be done, especially on the PP.
Seems like the coaches are trying to balance both our PP units, but its obviously not working, at least not like at the start of the season. Maybe its time to stack our first PP unit again.
I really hope they at least give jvr, g, jake, coots sanheim/gost/provorov a try on the same unit in the training sessions because on paper that unit should work really well.

 

[Rebels57]

PP changes are coming apparently according to AV today.

 

[Striiker]

Not sure if we should blame all this soley on the coaches. Sure, they could utilize their players better (especially JVR), but they also do some things right and losing Lindblom and Patrick while also losing Schenn and Simmonds is probably hard to deal with as a coach.

But yeah, I do believe some line changes should be done, especially on the PP.
Seems like the coaches are trying to balance both our PP units, but its obviously not working, at least not like at the start of the season. Maybe its time to stack our first PP unit again.
I really hope they at least give jvr, g, jake, coots sanheim/gost/provorov a try on the same unit in the training sessions because on paper that unit should work really well.

I didn't blame it solely on the coaches. I said Provorov and TK are big problems on the unit because of their awful play.

We just need to go back to what we know works, instead of trying to be "unpredictable", like that idiot Therrien always talks about. Everyone knew what the Flyers PP was doing for years, but it still worked because stopping it isn't about predictability. If it was, Ovi wouldn't score goals from his spot on the PP like he does. I'm pretty sure everyone who watches hockey knows exactly what the Caps PP is going to do. And yet there he is, with by far the most PP goals over the last decade.