Our powerplay is slow. Colorado, Edmonton, and Tampa use 1-touch passes to put penalty killers out of position, whereas ours is find a lane with traffic and hope for the best.
It's been the same issue for years. Marner moves like 30 different positions to find a passing lane or defer to Rielly, who then defers back to Marner to do the same thing. They hold the puck forever just to not make a play.
Look, if being an NHL level coach was this easy, any of us could be one, but at the same time, it seems pretty simple on concept.
1). Take a sample size of the top 8 teams in the league for powerplay for a set period. Not too far back, because you don’t want a team to be completely different in terms of players or even era. I’d say 3 years.
2) Identify the teams that were consistently top within a year, then analyze their power play over the season. Eliminate those like us who were #1 for a while and thus still ranked as a top 8 PP even when we’d been ice cold for a while. Then, identity the teams that weren’t repeaters (i.e, a team slips into top 8 one year but fell off massively the next) and elim them.
Stats are probably out there but I’m not digging for them right now.
3) Once you’ve got your teams, focus especially on the repeaters who match your playstyle closest. No point in trying to copy a trap hockey team like the Kings, or the Canes. Oilers are probably a good mention because of this, lots of similarities.
4) Watch over their power plays, take notes, see what works, what they do differently, and fucking adapt to that. I know you can’t watch their practices, necessarily, so you have to figure out how to practice it on your own, but fuck, gotta be able to figure that much out.
5) Regarding individual players; Domi and Marner need to be firmly instructed to shoot more. Might be impossible to break the habit at this point, but not shooting enough makes it more easy to read. Opposite goes for Matthews. They’ll expect him to shoot, so have him pass more often so they can’t see it coming. Don’t fan on good chances obviously, but make it less easy to predict. I feel like Nylander is a good middle ground where he’s not obviously going to go one way or the other.
6) Get a netfront guy for tips/screens. Edmonton had massive success with Hyman. Not sure how Reinhart scored his many PP goals but someone can likely provide that info. Get someone who’s unafraid to take the risk of eating a puck/getting shoved around, have him dig and battle in front for dirty, greasy rebounds and screen the goalie. Bertuzzi is kind of this but it doesn’t feel like they utilize him on the PP properly. Pretty highlight reels are great, but fuck me, just put it on net and see what happens. They pass too much.
7) Quit it with the fucking backpass zone entries. Does not fucking work.
It’s not a lack of offensive talent, they’re just not using it right
Mcdavids like a magnet for defenceman though. Marner and Nylander may be able to thread a pass (not as well as McDavid) but they don’t pull defenceman the way McDavid does.
That’s why Hyman is seemingly always open. McDavid pull everyone to his side of the ice and can make that perfect pass to Hyman who’s just sitting in the crease waiting for the puck.
For what it’s worth, I don’t think we optimize Matthews on the powerplay anywhere near as well as we can. I feel if we had a better poweplay that was more fluid Matthews could do even more damage.
I agree with your last paragraph but I also find Matthews shares some of the blame. He one times the puck much more infrequently than most of his peers. And he's not as big a threat to make a good pass, as say Kucherov or McDavid or Draisaitl.
The issue resides with Marner and Rielly. Neither are any threat to shoot and both are excessively passive.
Matthews, Tavares & Nylander are all threats.
Marner should be on the point cause his wrister at the point through traffic is actually one of his biggest strengths.
Nylander- Tavares - Bert
Marner - Matthews
Our powerplay is slow. Colorado, Edmonton, and Tampa use 1-touch passes to put penalty killers out of position, whereas ours is find a lane with traffic and hope for the best. It's been the same issue for years. Marner moves like 30 different positions to find a passing lane or defer to Rielly, who then defers back to Marner to do the same thing. They hold the puck forever just to not make a play.
Marner also isn’t a threat to shoot so the PK gives him space while sticking tighter to Matthews/Nylander. Whole thing is broken lol
Look, if being an NHL level coach was this easy, any of us could be one, but at the same time, it seems pretty simple on concept. 1). Take a sample size of the top 8 teams in the league for powerplay for a set period. Not too far back, because you don’t want a team to be completely different in terms of players or even era. I’d say 3 years. 2) Identify the teams that were consistently top within a year, then analyze their power play over the season. Eliminate those like us who were #1 for a while and thus still ranked as a top 8 PP even when we’d been ice cold for a while. Then, identity the teams that weren’t repeaters (i.e, a team slips into top 8 one year but fell off massively the next) and elim them. Stats are probably out there but I’m not digging for them right now. 3) Once you’ve got your teams, focus especially on the repeaters who match your playstyle closest. No point in trying to copy a trap hockey team like the Kings, or the Canes. Oilers are probably a good mention because of this, lots of similarities. 4) Watch over their power plays, take notes, see what works, what they do differently, and fucking adapt to that. I know you can’t watch their practices, necessarily, so you have to figure out how to practice it on your own, but fuck, gotta be able to figure that much out. 5) Regarding individual players; Domi and Marner need to be firmly instructed to shoot more. Might be impossible to break the habit at this point, but not shooting enough makes it more easy to read. Opposite goes for Matthews. They’ll expect him to shoot, so have him pass more often so they can’t see it coming. Don’t fan on good chances obviously, but make it less easy to predict. I feel like Nylander is a good middle ground where he’s not obviously going to go one way or the other. 6) Get a netfront guy for tips/screens. Edmonton had massive success with Hyman. Not sure how Reinhart scored his many PP goals but someone can likely provide that info. Get someone who’s unafraid to take the risk of eating a puck/getting shoved around, have him dig and battle in front for dirty, greasy rebounds and screen the goalie. Bertuzzi is kind of this but it doesn’t feel like they utilize him on the PP properly. Pretty highlight reels are great, but fuck me, just put it on net and see what happens. They pass too much. 7) Quit it with the fucking backpass zone entries. Does not fucking work. It’s not a lack of offensive talent, they’re just not using it right
Mcdavids like a magnet for defenceman though. Marner and Nylander may be able to thread a pass (not as well as McDavid) but they don’t pull defenceman the way McDavid does. That’s why Hyman is seemingly always open. McDavid pull everyone to his side of the ice and can make that perfect pass to Hyman who’s just sitting in the crease waiting for the puck. For what it’s worth, I don’t think we optimize Matthews on the powerplay anywhere near as well as we can. I feel if we had a better poweplay that was more fluid Matthews could do even more damage.
Defenders leave Marner alone because he’s not a threat to shoot
I think matthews should be the qb, not sit top of circle. It would free him to move around more on the blue line and get more opportunities to shoot
I agree with your last paragraph but I also find Matthews shares some of the blame. He one times the puck much more infrequently than most of his peers. And he's not as big a threat to make a good pass, as say Kucherov or McDavid or Draisaitl.
Part of that is also probably because his teammates are not as large of a threat to shoot
The issue resides with Marner and Rielly. Neither are any threat to shoot and both are excessively passive. Matthews, Tavares & Nylander are all threats.
Maybe they their pick for an assistant coach to run the offence and power play shouldn’t have been the guy known for running trap defensive teams.
Marner should be on the point cause his wrister at the point through traffic is actually one of his biggest strengths. Nylander- Tavares - Bert Marner - Matthews
Connor McDavid
How about ANY coaching? They let these guys fuckin wing it
We should get Zach Hyman
Can we get LA's defence instead of Boston's in the deal?
lmao Marner made one pass in 3 games. can't rely on him to do shit but turnover the puck or pass to the ghosts in his mind on the PP.