[CP Story] Digging Into the Powerplay

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

I am a firm believer that these issues come down to the speed at which the Flames are executing. When I watch the power play what strikes me most is how immobile the players are. When they are in the offensive zone 5 on 5 the Flames are usually moving and cycling all over the place, and this creates havoc. But then on the man-advantage they become motionless, and the puck movement as a result also slows.

I have mentioned elsewhere that I don't think this is a personnel or a tactical issue. The problem looks most like they are constantly overthinking things. Having a **** power play for so many games almost certainly has gotten into the players's heads, and the solution might just be to play through it, because once it clicks all the ingredients are there for the power play to be lethal. Hell, it WAS lethal with virtually the same personnel through most of last season, and again for a good stretch of games this year.

This. Exactly this. It really has nothing to do with a booming point shot or one timer, because even if they played to that type of shot, the puck gets there so slowly the PK has lots of time to set up a block or the goalie gets over in time to make a fairly routine save (both of these things happened last night - Gio and Brodie got blocked on point shots and Janko's one timer was easily stopped.

It's not a coincidence that the Flames' better chances were in scrambles in front of the net, caused by the puck moving in quickly and then getting played to the front.

[Philly06Cup]

Originally Posted by stemit14

The powerplay was one of the big reasons I wanted iginla rather than Jagr. Penalty killers have to respect one timers from right-handed snipers like iginla, Ovechkin, Laine, Stamkos... seems to spread out the PK which means more room for skilled playmakers like Johnny and also opens up the slot for Monahan. Most teams that have these kinds of shooters seem to have pretty effective power plays.

I know iginla is not what he once was but he still has a wicked one-timer. Can’t say there are many teams offering up right-handed snipers in trade these days so it would have been the cheapest, most effective option.


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This. 1-3-1 is fine, but the outside guys on the '3' need to pose a threat of a dangerous one-timer. Versteeg took a lot of one-timers. Gaudreau and Monahan do not take enough.

[cross16]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

3) I am not a fan of the 1-3-1. I find that the middle guy (Monahan, in our case), being in the middle of the box, is almost impossible to pass to. Watching Canada's PP in the WJs was interesting. They also deployed the 1-3-1 with Dube in that spot. It was extremely difficult to get him the puck in that situation as well. Just too heavily covered.

I actually thought watching the 1-3-1 TC deployed vs the Flames highlighted an issue the Flames have. Dube was constantly moving and trying get a pass to help open a lane and if IIRC scored 1 or 2 goals from the spot. I find when you watch the Flames the person in that "Dube" spot, is often stationary and only available for open tap back passes that really don't do anything. With Monahan's shot, that middle area should be an opportunity for him to get some pucks on net and hopefully a few goals if he can snipe a few (not difficult with his release).

Personal preference, but I like 1-3-1 but I don't think the Flames utilize all the options they have available to them within the set up.

[shadowlord]

I feel like the PP is weak for the following reasons:

1) Slow puck movement. The first unit is not moving the puck very quickly, and even when we do, it's usually between the Johnny and Gio/Brodie - on occasion Versteeg/Janko. As a result, opposition PKs rarely need to move that much, just keep the two (Monny and Tkachuk/Ferland) in the middle bottled up, and the puck only stays on Johnny's side of the rink.

2) Poor puck retrieval. Janko's improved this a bit, but typically after a shot, the PKers retrieve the puck and send it down the ice. I might get flak for this, but I've noticed Johnny has been getting lax on chasing after pucks if he's behind the opposition puck-carrier. I see this at ES as well, but it's been worse this season. I miss the days when Johnny would use his speed and hands to pickpocket the opposition, but now he seems to back off the chase a lot - maybe it's GG's system of forcing players to maintain their positioning. Anyway, with Mony & Ferland tied up in the slot, it's up to JG and Janko to retrieve the pucks that miss the net -- or effectively Janko-only on puck-retrieval duty.

So with poor puck retrieval and subsequent PK clearing the zone, our PP zone entry is needed more frequently, and without any variation in zone entry, as Enoch said, the opposition "eats you alive".

Everytime the puck gets cleared, it results in lower offensive pressure, so the PKers can rest or change more frequently. Having sustained offensive pressure tires out the defenders and they make mental mistakes that we can exploit (like missing player-coverage).

I think GG/Cameron knows about the poor puck retrieval, which is why 1st unit/Johnny never does a dump-and-chase PP zone entry; whereas the 2nd unit tries it and it occasionally works when Bennett & Tkachuk race into zone.

[DoubleK]

Originally Posted by stemit14

Penalty killers have to respect one timers from right-handed snipers like iginla, Ovechkin, Laine, Stamkos... seems to spread out the PK which means more room for skilled playmakers like Johnny and also opens up the slot for Monahan. Most teams that have these kinds of shooters seem to have pretty effective power plays.

It's so much this. Having all LH skaters on the ice makes it really easy to defend.

Need a Patrick Sharp type rental righty ASAP.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by shadowlord

I feel like the PP is weak for the following reasons:

1) Slow puck movement. The first unit is not moving the puck very quickly, and even when we do, it's usually between the Johnny and Gio/Brodie - on occasion Versteeg/Janko. As a result, opposition PKs rarely need to move that much, just keep the two (Monny and Tkachuk/Ferland) in the middle bottled up, and the puck only stays on Johnny's side of the rink.

2) Poor puck retrieval. Janko's improved this a bit, but typically after a shot, the PKers retrieve the puck and send it down the ice. I might get flak for this, but I've noticed Johnny has been getting lax on chasing after pucks if he's behind the opposition puck-carrier. I see this at ES as well, but it's been worse this season. I miss the days when Johnny would use his speed and hands to pickpocket the opposition, but now he seems to back off the chase a lot - maybe it's GG's system of forcing players to maintain their positioning. Anyway, with Mony & Ferland tied up in the slot, it's up to JG and Janko to retrieve the pucks that miss the net -- or effectively Janko-only on puck-retrieval duty.

So with poor puck retrieval and subsequent PK clearing the zone, our PP zone entry is needed more frequently, and without any variation in zone entry, as Enoch said, the opposition "eats you alive".

Everytime the puck gets cleared, it results in lower offensive pressure, so the PKers can rest or change more frequently. Having sustained offensive pressure tires out the defenders and they make mental mistakes that we can exploit (like missing player-coverage).

I think GG/Cameron knows about the poor puck retrieval, which is why 1st unit/Johnny never does a dump-and-chase PP zone entry; whereas the 2nd unit tries it and it occasionally works when Bennett & Tkachuk race into zone.

This is the biggest issue.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Bingo

Lets look for some trends here ...

Teams with Great Powerplays but low chance generation.

Winnipeg (2nd/23rd)
Nashville (4th/26th)
New Jersey (6th/20th)
Colorado (8th/22nd)

Teams with great powerplays and high chance generation.

Pittsburgh (1st/3rd)
Toronto (6th/1st)
Islanders (9th/7th)

Teams with high chance generation and terrible powerplays.

Florida (26th/4th)
Calgary (20th/6th)
Arizona (20th/9th)

Teams with low chance generation and terrible powerplays

Columbus (31st/30th)
Chicago (29th/31st)
Ottawa (26th/28th)
Ducks (23rd/21st)

What do you see from this? I see a lack of correlation.