PP stats never tell the full tale that's why you can't use them to judge the strength of the pp. Despite being third in the league in terms of percentage the b's were near the bottom when it came to pp goals when down a goal. Hell that's all Brick used to ***** about. It's not the pp percentage or how many goals you score it's when you score them. The B's were great at putting pp goals in while leading by two or more but they hardly if ever scored on teh pp when down a goal.
You seem to think that I'm arguing that our PP was good in the MTL series... it wasn't. What I'm arguing is that our powerplay was one of the best in the league for 82 games, and it was more than successful to get us past the 2nd round, even in lieu of it struggling in the MTL series. Now you can use your seven game sample size to conclude that our PP sucks and Ward must be fired, but I'll continue to look at the big picture and big sample size to conclude otherwise.
Those best players are on the pp you know. The pp that didn't show up. The same pp that ran the same play the habs saw all year and snuff out. A good pp coach changes things up. Ward doesn't do that. It's the same over and over
That's my point! The players didn't show up! Has nothing to do with Ward. Are you essentially blaming Ward for putting the best players out on the PP? And not changing it up? What should he have done, kidnap Giroux? Stop giving the players a pass when they sucked when it mattered most.
since you like stats you post em. after all they tell the whole tale right? . They were 8th in the regular season in terms of percentage. Looking at the stats you think they were great but if you actually watch the games you know they sucked on the pk from the end of dec onward. If you watched the games you would know that those long runs of killing 25+penalties in earlier int eh season skew their overall percentage which if why pk and pp percentages don't tell the whole tale
Our postseason PK was a hair under 78%. Is that not a glaringly uncharacteristic %?
What you initially suggested (in a thread titled "what would you like to see this offseason") was for us to fire Ward and bring in Adam Oates to coach the PP. I find that asinine because 1) the powerplay was fine for the previous 85ish games and 2) the players collectively sucked in the MTL series, regardless of the situation (PK, PP, etc). You fault the coaching, but I do not. I blame the players for playing successfully within our PP framework for the entire season, up until when it mattered most. It's not 2011 anymore.. the PP is fine, its coaching is fine, and the player personnel is fine.
This team has won it all in spite of a joke of a PP, but we had goaltending, ES success, and a world-class PK. But then again, if I "actually watched the games" I'd have likely realized that Ward singlehandedly held back our top scorers from playing up to expectations.
There was a time when it was logical to question Ward's competence at running the PP. That time is over, for now at least. We had our best players collapse when it mattered most, and yes that includes the PP, but it was hardly the series-determining factor that you make it out be.
