Special Teams - 2007/08 Season

[amp73]

........., why is our PK so bad early on? We have the best coach for the PK in my opinion,

Our PK coach isn't on the PK unit

[Guest JL]

Jarvis has certainly done a phenomenal job with the power play. While I believed that we would still remain dangerous with the man advantage even without Sheldon Souray, I didn't think we'd be as dangerous as this. I love the change in philosophy to put more emphasis on 5-man puck-moving units, constant movement, and quick passes to set up one-timers from the circles. I applaud Jarvis for adapting to the loss of Souray so quickly and so effectively.

Markov is THE catalyst for our PP this year. His passing ability is unmatched on this team.

[fourtrax]

My one quibble with the PP this year is our inability to consistently set up in the offensive zone. We waste far too much time trying to bring the puck in, only to be stopped at the blueline and have it cleared. It should be obvious by now that there are only a few players who should be allowed to carry the puck in themselves: Kovalev, Markov, and Koivu. Everyone else should dump and chase.

[Guest JL]

My one quibble with the PP this year is our inability to consistently set up in the offensive zone. We waste far too much time trying to bring the puck in, only to be stopped at the blueline and have it cleared. It should be obvious by now that there are only a few players who should be allowed to carry the puck in themselves: Kovalev, Markov, and Koivu. Everyone else should dump and chase.

And there's an art to doing that. The San Jose Sharks are the best team I've seen at the dump and chase. You need to overload one side and shoot while everyone is moving. No last minute changing your mind, it has to be set, otherwise you're just giving them the puck.

[fourtrax]

And there's an art to doing that. The San Jose Sharks are the best team I've seen at the dump and chase. You need to overload one side and shoot while everyone is moving. No last minute changing your mind, it has to be set, otherwise you're just giving them the puck.

Yes, I agree. You have to time the 'dump' so that the 'chase' can be initiated with maximum speed from the blueline. We hesitate too much and it costs us. If you fire the puck in at just the right moment, the chasers do not have to hold up or break stride at the blueline. They can zoom in at top speed and have an excellent chance of being first to the puck. We're pretty good at puck retrieval this year, so I think it's just a question of making sure we get there first.

And can we stop dumping the puck in when we're in the midst of a line change? That really irritates me.

[Guest Cenner Hice]

And can we stop dumping the puck in when we're in the midst of a line change? That really irritates me.

A great sign for our team if that's the thing that really irritates you. In past seasons, the things that really irritated me were that some of the players took it upon themselves to go to the press with their grievances... and that we couldn't play the full 60 minutes (or anywhere near)... and - oh just a few other things.

The press irritates me, too. However, here's something relevant to the thread:

Canadiens' power play stays on top

[Guest Cenner Hice]

Still top on exactly 30% on the PP. Canes (2nd) are on 24.1%.

On SHG, we're 3rd= (though you could argue 3rd on our own as Dallas who also have 4 SHG have one against).

17th on the PK. (upward bound... )

[Guest JL]

Again tonight, we didn't look too sharp short-handed against the Sabres' powerplay, which went 2 for 3. The Sabres use the umbrella PP set-up, our nemesis it seems. It's like teams manage to get our defensemen at the point in rotating and whenever you face a team with big bodies up front and you draw Komisarek or Harmlik to the point, you're left with a small forward trying to play defense against Vanek or Gaustad. Not good. The team must work in practice on that type of set-up, it's killing us.

[Dutch]

Again tonight, we didn't look too sharp short-handed against the Sabres' powerplay, which went 2 for 3. The Sabres use the umbrella PP set-up, our nemesis it seems. It's like teams manage to get our defensemen at the point in rotating and whenever you face a team with big bodies up front and you draw Komisarek or Harmlik to the point, you're left with a small forward trying to play defense against Vanek or Gaustad. Not good. The team must work in practice on that type of set-up, it's killing us.

You are right, teams know this is our weakness, we really need to work on it.

Maybe they should invite you for a practice JL

[Guest JL]

You are right, teams know this is our weakness, we really need to work on it.

Maybe they should invite you for a practice JL

Oh I have full confidence in our coaching staff to find a solution to this one. I do have one but I'm over 5,000 kms away from the Bell Centre.

[Guest Cenner Hice]

Still top on exactly 30% on the PP. Canes (2nd) are on 24.1%.

On SHG, we're 3rd= (though you could argue 3rd on our own as Dallas who also have 4 SHG have one against).

The latest update:

Still in 1st on PP (as we all know). Canes have dropped to 6th and the Stars are now in 2nd on 23% (to the Habs' 24.7%).

17th on the PK. (upward bound... )

So I got that wrong (unless, by "upward bound" I meant from 17th to 27th )

[Guest AlexK]

I think the key to the PP is doing things quickly. Kovalev has been a big part of the PP with Souray gone and he has always been a PP guy. He does a lot of one timers which doesn't give the goalie much time to setup. His pass yesterday to Streit was a one time pass which again didn't give the goalie much time to setup. Most of the players on this team stop the puck on the PP before they shoot or pass it which gives the goalie some time to move to the other side of the net. Markov's pass was also a one time pass even if it wasn't intentional and just a lucky bounce. Markov is also key on the PP, but I would argue that everyone is important. Both the first and second units have contributed their fair share of goals.

[fourtrax]

You know what I'd like to see more of on the power play? A few more progressions in terms of the looks we're giving other teams. We are already great at it but I think there are untapped resources waiting to be utilized.

I look at it like football. The progression of handing the ball off to the running back is play action. You use one to set up the other, because the goal is to, as much as possible, present the opponent with a situation in which the same look can trigger different plays. In the football scenario I mentioned, the look is the same in both cases: the quarterback taking the snap under centre, moving into the backfield towards the RB, and extending his arm with the football in hand. However, two different plays are associated with the look: the RB actually taking the ball and the QB keeping the ball to throw a pass. If a team has successfully established both plays during the course of a game, it will generally keep the defense honest: the linemen can't overcommit to the running-back because they are never sure if he'll actually be the ball-carrier. If they overcommit to the run, they can get burned for a big passing play. If they back off the run, the running back will gain more yards on the ground. Football 101.

Coming back to our power play, I believe we can accomplish much the same thing with Kovalev on the wall, in possession of the puck. By now, we all know Kovalev's trick of drifting towards the blueline, then wheeling back towards the faceoff circle to give himself a shooting lane for the wrist shot. He's done it many times with success. But I wonder: why don't we take that progression further? The next time Kovalev wheels into the circle, why not have him dish to the short-side man down low and then drive to the net on the give-and-go? He did this once last year with Koivu and the end result was a goal. I think it would be the next logical step in the progression with Kovalev as teams start to play him closer and try to shut down his shooting lanes. It presents the same look as the shot but generates a different play from the look. And that's what we want: for our opponents to never be sure which play will result from a given look.

Anyhow, just a thought. It's not like I'm complaining about our power play or anything.

[fourtrax]

Last week, I was asking for a progression in Kovalev's look from the boards on the PP. Tonight, I got a different look even if it wasn't the one I wanted. Kovalev took it a step further by opting for the directed shot setting up a tip-in instead of his usual top-shelf wrister. And it worked. A thing of beauty. The d-men were square in his shooting lanes so he burned them with the redirect. Awesome.

[Guest AlexK]

A major part of this slump is the special teams getting worse and worse. They need to get back to their bread an butter. The PK seems to have taken a major slide with the loss of Bonk and Johnson. I think Carbs has tried almost everyone on the team on the PK and still hasn't found a unit to shut down other teams PP. The PK and defense really needs to improve on this team.

[fourtrax]

I understand that losing Bonk and Johnson has hurt our PK, but Muller has got to get the penalty-kill back to respectability at least. I'm not asking for us to be top 5 in the league, or even top 10, but somewhere in the middle of the pack. Given how much trouble we have scoring goals, we simply can't afford to be near the bottom of the league in penalty-killing.

[Guest JL]

We're just vulnerable when the opposition uses the umbrella PP setup, with one man at the point and two at the top of the face-off circles... We don't seem to know who to cover when they're rotating.

In order to defend against that successfully, you need 4 very mobile players on the ice who can cover a lot of ground, sort of like when you have a two men disadvantage, or you need to keep the same d-man in front of the net no matter what.

I'd try:

Komisarek (stays in front of the net no matter where the puck goes)

Markov (takes the left side)

Plekanec (top point)

Dandenault (takes the right side)

Followed by:

Hamrlik (in front of the net)

Bouillon (takes left side)

Chipchura (top point)

Streit/Begin (takes the right side)

Komisarek and Hamrlik would stay in front, just move from one side to the other, cutting the cross-crease pass.

Markov and Bouillon would be like Dandenault and Streit/Begin, taking care of the high slots

Plekanec and Chipchura would take the face-offs, and would cover the high point man, keeping them from shooting.

Not overly scientific, but worth a try.

[Guest AlexK]

Maybe you should give the coaches some advice. I've seen what you have described with the rotating forwards. We really can't have forwards end up playing defense as they aren't great at stoping the player from deflecting shots or screening the goalie. Something is all together wrong with this PK rotation skeem they use.

[Guest JL]

Maybe you should give the coaches some advice. I've seen what you have described with the rotating forwards. We really can't have forwards end up playing defense as they aren't great at stoping the player from deflecting shots or screening the goalie. Something is all together wrong with this PK rotation skeem they use.

That's why I'm suggesting to have Dandenault and Streit more involved against the umbrella PP set-up.

[Guest AlexK]

Whatever the solution they need to fix this. It's likely other teams know they are going to do this and pass the puck around until the forwards are in front of the net before they shoot the puck at the goal.

[Guest JL]

We're just vulnerable when the opposition uses the umbrella PP setup, with one man at the point and two at the top of the face-off circles... We don't seem to know who to cover when they're rotating.

In order to defend against that successfully, you need 4 very mobile players on the ice who can cover a lot of ground, sort of like when you have a two men disadvantage, or you need to keep the same d-man in front of the net no matter what.

I'd try:

Komisarek (stays in front of the net no matter where the puck goes)

Markov (takes the left side)

Plekanec (top point)

Dandenault (takes the right side)

Followed by:

Hamrlik (in front of the net)

Bouillon (takes left side)

Chipchura (top point)

Streit/Begin (takes the right side)

Komisarek and Hamrlik would stay in front, just move from one side to the other, cutting the cross-crease pass.

Markov and Bouillon would be like Dandenault and Streit/Begin, taking care of the high slots

Plekanec and Chipchura would take the face-offs, and would cover the high point man, keeping them from shooting.

Not overly scientific, but worth a try.

That's funny... I noticed tonight that some of the combinations used were very similar to the ones above, with Chipchura replaced by Lapierre... and it seemed to work better.

[fourtrax]

The PP works a little different when Kovalev isn't on the ice, but Koivu's line still scored on the PP last game. They make their fair share of contributions. Generally when Kovy is out there he is the QB and when Koivu is out there he is the QB.

The PP goal last game was a fluke shot from Brisebois that changed direction bouncing off Sharp's glove. Any power-play unit will score those goals once in a while. Does the second unit contribute? Occasionally. But it's still the first unit that is responsible for the bulk of our PP scoring.

[Guest AlexK]

It was mentioned on the radio that perhaps Saku could be moved to the first unit for the powerplay and either him or someone else could play the point. The only problem would be that Streit would probably not get any PP time then. I wouldn't mind seeing Koivu or someone on Pleks unit move to the point and Koivu to play with them. Kovy go to play on the first unit a lot of last season when he was struggling. Perhaps the same should be true for Koivu.

[Guest Cenner Hice]

A brief update on Special Team stats today (28 Feb) and how we compare in the league:

PP: 1st on 24.4% (Flyers on 22.7% just behind)

PK: 23rd ( )

SHGA: 1st (with only 2; Jackets and Panthers are on 3 and three teams on 4)

SHG: 8th equal (with 7 - 3 teams on 12; 2 on 10; a 9; an 8 and then us)

[Guest ChitownHabby]

Need to take Latendresse out of the lineup and insert one of the vets if we want to improve the PK.

Right now, our top 4 offensive forwards are our top 4 at killing penalties + begin. That's not practical.