The 3 major differences in our PP vs almost every team that we play
1) The man in front of the net. We seem to have 2 guys in the area but neither are really screening as they are going for the deflection. 10 times out of 10 the goalie will stop those shots if it is not deflected and I feel for the D as they did their job getting a shot through but its nothing but a stat booster.
2) The breakout has 0 urgency and is designed to stop everyone at the blue line. You need momentum coming in so that even if you are forced to dump it deep, you get 2 men on their d man and re gain possession. Our style is to dipsy doodle until there is no play, everyone is standing still, dump it in and hope the d man fumbles the puck otherwise it is headed back into our own zone. The D also seem to force the pass....so many times when they casually skate out of our zone they could take it all the way in as the forwards are being covered. Hamilton has been doing a great job of this as of late however you can tell the play is not designed like that so it turns into a free for all after.
3) Other teams get you chasing once the cycle is set up - rarely is someone hanging onto the puck for more than 2 seconds and creating the chase eventually leads to a mistake by the PK and an open man. I feel for Johny as he is now trying to do too much on his own. It seems as if the design is to get the puck and wait for someone to come at you and then dish to whoever the open guy is and let someone else come at him. Unfortunately these are NHL quality PKs and unless you are playing the Oilers, the only completely open men are going to be in non prime scoring positions.
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