2022-2023 Special Teams

[HabsRuleForever]

Power Play & Penalty Kill discussion.

[CaptWelly]

I believe the PP should be good. The penalty kill will probably be bad.

[H_T_L]

The Habs spent a good chunk of practice on special teams today. I hope they strategized on how not to telegraph that drop pass back to our zone on every rush on the PP. The only guy that doesn't make it obvious seems to be Wideman.  

[ramcharger440]

On 7/10/2022 at 9:28 PM, CaptWelly said:

I believe the PP should be good. The penalty kill will probably be bad.

Ummmm.....kind of the flip side eh? who would have thought our PK would start out so strong!

[electron58]

57 minutes ago, ramcharger440 said:

Ummmm.....kind of the flip side eh? who would have thought our PK would start out so strong!

With 4 rookies on D to boot, and no #1 Goalie. Let's hope it can last for as long as possible. 

[H_T_L]

49 minutes ago, electron58 said:

With 4 rookies on D to boot, and no #1 Goalie. Let's hope it can last for as long as possible. 

Allen is capable of #1 quality starts. It's his durability that would be in question IMO.

Regardless, the kids have indeed looked good in the very early going. Time will tell if they can continue to deliver and improve as the season goes forward.

[H_T_L]

1 hour ago, ramcharger440 said:

Ummmm.....kind of the flip side eh? who would have thought our PK would start out so strong!

I think the PP has shown signs of life this year compared to last. It's our zone entries that need tweaking. Once we've established position in the O zone, the puck movement has been fairly good. Not just perimeter passing like it was last year.

I think it will start to produce soon.

As for the PK, i totally agree. Didn't see that coming at all vs some pretty strong teams. 

[kinot-2]

About a week ago, I seen a clip of European hockey. In it they were playing in OT. 3 on 3. When one team got the got the puck and were going down the ice, that team pulled their goalie to make it a 4 on 3. They set it up perfectly and scored.

 I thought it was  an interesting strategy. 

[BigTed3]

1 hour ago, kinot-2 said:

About a week ago, I seen a clip of European hockey. In it they were playing in OT. 3 on 3. When one team got the got the puck and were going down the ice, that team pulled their goalie to make it a 4 on 3. They set it up perfectly and scored.

 I thought it was  an interesting strategy. 

Yes, I believe Sergei Fedorov was the coach who pulled his goalie. Apparently he does that a lot.

[electron58]

4 hours ago, H_T_L said:

Allen is capable of #1 quality starts. It's his durability that would be in question IMO.

Hence the " Let's hope it can last for as long as possible. "

[H_T_L]

PK still humming along. Shut down a hot PP tonight, although Allen had to make a couple nice saves.

[kinot-2]

1 minute ago, H_T_L said:

PK still humming along. Shut down a hot PP tonight, although Allen had to make a couple nice saves.

Need to get the PP going. That would help alot. 

[electron58]

31 minutes ago, kinot-2 said:

Need to get the PP going. That would help alot. 

Yeah, for sure.  Although we did get the winner on the PP against Pittsburg, so that was nice.

[kinot-2]

Our PP is at an astonishing 7.1%, and our PK is at 93.3%. 

 

[AH64]

1 hour ago, kinot-2 said:

Our PP is at an astonishing 7.1%, and our PK is at 93.3%. 

 

they say you are doing good if your special teams are above 100% lol 

[kinot-2]

3 hours ago, AH64 said:

they say you are doing good if your special teams are above 100% lol 

Ya, but not one of them at 7.1%.

 

[campabee82]

I am predicting that the Habs go 2 for 3 on the PP tonight. 

[kinot-2]

9 minutes ago, campabee82 said:

I am predicting that the Habs go 2 for 3 on the PP tonight. 

Dully noted.

 

[AH64]

1 hour ago, kinot-2 said:

Ya, but not one of them at 7.1%.

 

lol

[campabee82]

2 hours ago, kinot-2 said:

Dully noted.

 

Oh well, was wrong again 😆 

[BigTed3]

The PP has been very problematic to start the year. Wideman has to go. He can't get the zone established and he hasn't done much as the QB other than bobble the puck. IMO, Harris would be the most interesting guy to try in that role, as he's a mobile puck distributor and has good hand-eye coordination. The Habs also need a net presence and I'd actually favor trying something Boston used to do a few years ago when they stuck Chara in front of the other team's net. For us, why not stick Xhekaj there? Big guy, loves to mix it up and get in people's faces, and isn't completely inept with the puck. We're not asking him to snipe, we'd be asking him to disrupt the defensive shell, distract the goalie, get the puck back out of scrums to the skilled players, and occasionally tap the puck into the net from short distance. So my 1st PP unit would be

Xhekaj in front of net

Dach down low (working the slot to the goal line on the side where the puck is like a basketball forward posting up)

Caufield at the left half-wall

Suzuki at the right half-wall

Harris at the point

 

My 2nd PP unit would do something similar, with guys a bit further down the totem pole:

Anderson as my net presence

Monahan down low and in the slot

Gallagher on the left half-wall as my right-handed shot

Guhle on the right half-wall as my left-handed shot

Drouin as the puck distributor at the point

(here, could also consider putting Kovacevic in Gallagher's spot and Pitlick in Guhle's spot).

 

 

 

 

[campabee82]

16 minutes ago, BigTed3 said:

The PP has been very problematic to start the year. Wideman has to go. He can't get the zone established and he hasn't done much as the QB other than bobble the puck. IMO, Harris would be the most interesting guy to try in that role, as he's a mobile puck distributor and has good hand-eye coordination. The Habs also need a net presence and I'd actually favor trying something Boston used to do a few years ago when they stuck Chara in front of the other team's net. For us, why not stick Xhekaj there? Big guy, loves to mix it up and get in people's faces, and isn't completely inept with the puck. We're not asking him to snipe, we'd be asking him to disrupt the defensive shell, distract the goalie, get the puck back out of scrums to the skilled players, and occasionally tap the puck into the net from short distance. So my 1st PP unit would be

Xhekaj in front of net

Dach down low (working the slot to the goal line on the side where the puck is like a basketball forward posting up)

Caufield at the left half-wall

Suzuki at the right half-wall

Harris at the point

 

My 2nd PP unit would do something similar, with guys a bit further down the totem pole:

Anderson as my net presence

Monahan down low and in the slot

Gallagher on the left half-wall as my right-handed shot

Guhle on the right half-wall as my left-handed shot

Drouin as the puck distributor at the point

(here, could also consider putting Kovacevic in Gallagher's spot and Pitlick in Guhle's spot).

 

 

 

 

I prefer Drouin in the Gretzky spot (behind the net) there his back passes will work cause all our players would be behind him LMAO. In all seriousness though, Drouin behind the net with shooters on either side in Caufield and Suzuki, Gally in the bumper/net front position and Harris at the point. Use the 1980's Oilers PP formation. If we are going to use Drouin on the PP, I think we need to have him as deep in the zone as we can.

[ramcharger440]

I prefer Drouin on another team! last night he was just floating around with the puck again doing pretty much nothing. Done with him what a waste of a good Dman he was.

[claremont]

17 hours ago, BigTed3 said:

The PP has been very problematic to start the year. Wideman has to go. He can't get the zone established and he hasn't done much as the QB other than bobble the puck. IMO, Harris would be the most interesting guy to try in that role, as he's a mobile puck distributor and has good hand-eye coordination. The Habs also need a net presence and I'd actually favor trying something Boston used to do a few years ago when they stuck Chara in front of the other team's net. For us, why not stick Xhekaj there? Big guy, loves to mix it up and get in people's faces, and isn't completely inept with the puck. We're not asking him to snipe, we'd be asking him to disrupt the defensive shell, distract the goalie, get the puck back out of scrums to the skilled players, and occasionally tap the puck into the net from short distance. So my 1st PP unit would be

Xhekaj in front of net

Dach down low (working the slot to the goal line on the side where the puck is like a basketball forward posting up)

Caufield at the left half-wall

Suzuki at the right half-wall

Harris at the point

 

My 2nd PP unit would do something similar, with guys a bit further down the totem pole:

Anderson as my net presence

Monahan down low and in the slot

Gallagher on the left half-wall as my right-handed shot

Guhle on the right half-wall as my left-handed shot

Drouin as the puck distributor at the point

(here, could also consider putting Kovacevic in Gallagher's spot and Pitlick in Guhle's spot).

Agree on Wideman - I have stated before he is too one dimensional for my liking. I only see him walk the PP line on an occasional basis. Pitlick seems to have good possession on the PP but turns it over along the wall too frequently to my eye. 

Harris on the PP is interesting - good puck mover/passer/skater but from what I have seen so far, his point shot doesn't break glass, so that appears to be a missing element. Weber's shot of course was amazing but often missed the mark or wound up hitting Gally, so that's a counter point to that need. I would like to see Harris & Guhle given a bit more of PP time. 

[BigTed3]

31 minutes ago, claremont said:

Agree on Wideman - I have stated before he is too one dimensional for my liking. I only see him walk the PP line on an occasional basis. Pitlick seems to have good possession on the PP but turns it over along the wall too frequently to my eye. 

Harris on the PP is interesting - good puck mover/passer/skater but from what I have seen so far, his point shot doesn't break glass, so that appears to be a missing element. Weber's shot of course was amazing but often missed the mark or wound up hitting Gally, so that's a counter point to that need. I would like to see Harris & Guhle given a bit more of PP time. 

I don't think you need a heavy shot to be on the PP. You have to be able to get your shot off and get it through traffic and you have to be able to move the puck quickly and across the ice to get the goalie moving. Harris can do those things. He's not Andrei Markov, but Markov illustrates the point that a player doesn't need a rocket to be a great PP player. Dan Boyle. Duncan Keith. Scott Niedermayer. Sergei Zubov. I'm not saying these guys had bad shots, but I think they were better known for other things that made them successful offensively. I can see Harris being more effective than what we've gone through recently.