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Power Play problems and the one timer


44 Duncan

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Six games into this early season it appears the Canucks power play needs some help big time. Thomas Vanek looks like he will be the best option as the net front presence and has a few goals. It seems we are missing that big one time shot or we are not using the players that we have the right way to give them the best opportunity to get shots off. This thread is to discuss the problem and any possible solutions to see what we can come up with. I personally would like to see Brock play his off side and the team focus on getting him the puck. He didn't score tonight but he did some damage with the power of his shot. That said he played his normal side for most of the power plays making it very hard for the one timer. He also was the first guy off the ice every power play. All the great teams in the NHL have that player with the deadly one timer  Stamos, McDavid, Kane, Tavares, OV, Matthews etc... Now we don't have that high end top line player but we do have a kid with a shot like that. Unfortunately it appears the Sedins should be the 3rd power play option now.   I think maybe playing Vanek in front of the net, Boeser on his off side by the face off circle, Bo at the other face off circle and Stecher and Granlund on the points would be a great look and i don't think they have tried it yet. 

 

           Vanek

Bowser      Horvat

Granlund   Stecher

 

 

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32 minutes ago, The 5th Line said:

Boeser plays the middle bumper spot and then kicks out to the Ovie/Stamkos one time spot, we just don't have a good PPQB to get him the puck.  We have Hutton who looks like he's going to break his own neck every time he tries to fake someone out, he needs to simplify his game.

 

Boeser will be fine as long as his teammates start to realize that they need to get him the puck as much as possible

 

Horvat is just not a good powerplay guy, he can be the net front guy but he shouldn't be on the half wall at any point he just doesn't have the vision, poise or passing skills.  

Hutton shouldn't even be on the PP, we should give the spot to Pouliot. Pouliot and Del Zotto and the other unit can have Stecher .

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36 minutes ago, DefCon1 said:

Hutton shouldn't even be on the PP, we should give the spot to Pouliot. Pouliot and Del Zotto and the other unit can have Stecher .

I agree. Hutton just doesn't seem quick/decisive enough out there. Part of it might be a confidence thing but he isn't very poised poised with the puck and his compete level is questionable at times. Stetcher is a much better option and I'd be game to try out Pouliot as well. 

 

The other glaringly obvious thing to me is the Sedins.  I don't want their molasses-like skating anywhere near the PP. They are completely ineffective in that role. The Sedins are essentially two thirds of our 4th line at this point, which is fine. Give them their share of O zone starts 5 on 5 and they'll do decent enough in that role. But there's no sense running 3 PP units just because we don't want to hurt any feelings. They're professionals. They saw this day coming. So let's get on with it already. 

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42 minutes ago, VIC_CITY said:

I agree. Hutton just doesn't seem quick/decisive enough out there. Part of it might be a confidence thing but he isn't very poised poised with the puck and his compete level is questionable at times. Stetcher is a much better option and I'd be game to try out Pouliot as well. 

 

The other glaringly obvious thing to me is the Sedins.  I don't want their molasses-like skating anywhere near the PP. They are completely ineffective in that role. The Sedins are essentially two thirds of our 4th line at this point, which is fine. Give them their share of O zone starts 5 on 5 and they'll do decent enough in that role. But there's no sense running 3 PP units just because we don't want to hurt any feelings. They're professionals. They saw this day coming. So let's get on with it already. 

The only thing with Sedins is that they can setup on the PP but the rest of their game is not good at all. Especially seeing them pass for 2 minutes for one perfect pass in the slot that usually gets fanned on. They will retire after this season hopefully so I really don't care about how they play this season. As long as Green gives them limited ice time and relegates them to 2nd PP am fine with it.

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3 hours ago, 44 Duncan said:

Six games into this early season it appears the Canucks power play needs some help big time. Thomas Vanek looks like he will be the best option as the net front presence and has a few goals. It seems we are missing that big one time shot or we are not using the players that we have the right way to give them the best opportunity to get shots off. This thread is to discuss the problem and any possible solutions to see what we can come up with. I personally would like to see Brock play his off side and the team focus on getting him the puck. He didn't score tonight but he did some damage with the power of his shot. That said he played his normal side for most of the power plays making it very hard for the one timer. He also was the first guy off the ice every power play. All the great teams in the NHL have that player with the deadly one timer  Stamos, McDavid, Kane, Tavares, OV, Matthews etc... Now we don't have that high end top line player but we do have a kid with a shot like that. Unfortunately it appears the Sedins should be the 3rd power play option now.   I think maybe playing Vanek in front of the net, Boeser on his off side by the face off circle, Bo at the other face off circle and Stecher and Granlund on the points would be a great look and i don't think they have tried it yet. 

 

           Vanek

Bowser      Horvat

Granlund   Stecher

 

 

Bowser_-_Mario_Party_10.png 

Now we have Bowser on our team?

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10 hours ago, DefCon1 said:

The only thing with Sedins is that they can setup on the PP but the rest of their game is not good at all. Especially seeing them pass for 2 minutes for one perfect pass in the slot that usually gets fanned on. They will retire after this season hopefully so I really don't care about how they play this season. As long as Green gives them limited ice time and relegates them to 2nd PP am fine with it.

But they struggle massively with their zone entries and don't get set up nearly as often as they need to to be a real option on the PP. As for the perfect pass, I just don't see it anymore. I see them forcing passes into/through the slot that usually end up getting picked off. Either that or their target has a guy draped all over him and can't manage a shot on goal. There isn't really anything to like about them on the PP to be honest. IMO of course.

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Watch other teams.  They all pass the puck around the horn, not just up and down one side. They use the entire zone to spread out the PK and then look for that cross ice one timer.  The Sedins have gotten obstinately addicted to forcing the impossible pass, which has trickled down as a learned culture to the rest of the team, and it simple does not work anymore.  The league has caught up.  The secret to PP success is fast, long distance catch around the horn until the PK opens up.  Its pretty simple, and Newell Brown will not teach it.

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Boeser and Vanek are no doubt #1 PP Unit players the problem is who do you put with them? Sedins? Horvat? Gagner? I like Bo too but like another poster said he just does not have that natural fit as he is more of a "score on the rush" kind of guy.

The point guys are severely pressured all the time and I agree that they do not use the whole perimeter to open up gaps for shots. I would have hoped Baertchi would take that extra step this year but that has not come to fruition yet.

Maybe they should try Virt because they have pretty much tried everyone else and nothing has clicked so far. Virt is good on the boards and we seem to be losing it there on our more recent PP's.

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On ‎2017‎-‎10‎-‎21 at 1:18 PM, EdgarM said:

Boeser and Vanek are no doubt #1 PP Unit players the problem is who do you put with them? Sedins? Horvat? Gagner? I like Bo too but like another poster said he just does not have that natural fit as he is more of a "score on the rush" kind of guy.

The point guys are severely pressured all the time and I agree that they do not use the whole perimeter to open up gaps for shots. I would have hoped Baertchi would take that extra step this year but that has not come to fruition yet.

Maybe they should try Virt because they have pretty much tried everyone else and nothing has clicked so far. Virt is good on the boards and we seem to be losing it there on our more recent PP's.

Yes! they tried him on the PP and he looked pretty good. Hope they give him a couple of more games there too.

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I actually think splitting the twins up on the pp would be a good option. The one thing they still have is their passing skills and the 1st unit really needs a a center who can pass well and win draws.

 

Boeser - Henrik - Vanek

MDZ Gagner

 

Daniel - Granlund - Baertschi

Stech Pouliot 

 

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The twins looked good with Virtanen on the PP today, generated some chances. Henrik had a great chance to score on it. Keep them together as linemates both 5v5 and in the PP. Take Gagner off the point and try someone like Gudbranson out. Gudbranson has shown these last couple of games he can hit the net, as he's hit the crossbar/post a couple of times this season from the point.

 

Sedin - Sedin - Virtanen

MDZ - Gudbranson/Pouliot

 

The second unit looks good, although it would be nice to see Boeser get that shot of his off more. I'm just happy our PP looks better.

 

Baer - Bo - Boeser

Stecher - Pouliot/Gudbranson.

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6 hours ago, J-23 said:

The twins looked good with Virtanen on the PP today, generated some chances. Henrik had a great chance to score on it. Keep them together as linemates both 5v5 and in the PP. Take Gagner off the point and try someone like Gudbranson out. Gudbranson has shown these last couple of games he can hit the net, as he's hit the crossbar/post a couple of times this season from the point.

 

Sedin - Sedin - Virtanen

MDZ - Gudbranson/Pouliot

 

The second unit looks good, although it would be nice to see Boeser get that shot of his off more. I'm just happy our PP looks better.

 

Baer - Bo - Boeser

Stecher - Pouliot/Gudbranson.

Agreed Gagner needs to come off the PP. He does nothing to help and usually is the one who loses possession. There are other possibilities on the team they can try including Gudbranson..

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Pretty good breakdown here on the Canucks power play issues.

 

As the article suggests, the main underlying problem is that the Canucks are not employing strategies that force the opposition penalty killers to adjust. Instead, the Canucks are repeatedly finding themselves in situations where they are trying to react and cope with the systems of the penalty killers.

 

It's called a "man advantage" for a reason. Having an extra player on the ice should allow the attacking team to put tremendous pressure on their opponents. Penalty killers should be forced to constantly react and adjust to the extra attacker on the ice.

 

Instead, the Canucks seem to be using schemes that limit the effectiveness of having the extra man.

 

As the article shows quite well, our breakout strategies tend to be very easy to defend. We end up with our players in neutral zone formations that limit our own options and are quite easy to shut down.

 

Failing to have an effective breakout means that we spend far too much time attempting to gain entry into the attacking zone. And even when we do get the puck over the blue line, we're often unable to get set-up and end up having to rush the play and not get off quality chances.

 

And even when we do have successful entries and get set-up in the attacking zone, our formation is often too static. We don't employ enough schemes that force movement or disrupt the opposition PK formation. And this severely limits or ability to create high percentage scoring chances.

 

Definitely lots of areas to work on.

 

Hopefully some of this will improve as the players build more familiarity and start to get better reads off each other. I'm sure the coaches are aware of the issues. But there's only so much that can be done in practice. 

 

That said, I do think some of the strategies suggested by the article should be considered. I definitely think we should consider switching up our approach to the breakout. There are systems (the article offers a couple good examples) that can create more room through the neutral zone and open up space to advance the puck.

 

And, as always (seems like we've been saying it for years now), once we do gain entry and get set-up, we need a lot more movement in the attacking zone.

 

Mostly, we need be making our power play a true "man advantage." And that means using strategies where the team with the extra man dictates the play through all three zones and forces opposition PKers to continually adjust and react.

 

Right now, teams just look far too comfortable when defending the Canucks power play. And that needs to change.

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29 minutes ago, SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME said:

Pretty good breakdown here on the Canucks power play issues.

 

As the article suggests, the main underlying problem is that the Canucks are not employing strategies that force the opposition penalty killers to adjust. Instead, the Canucks are repeatedly finding themselves in situations where they are trying to react and cope with the systems of the penalty killers.

 

It's called a "man advantage" for a reason. Having an extra player on the ice should allow the attacking team to put tremendous pressure on their opponents. Penalty killers should be forced to constantly react and adjust to the extra attacker on the ice.

 

Instead, the Canucks seem to be using schemes that limit the effectiveness of having the extra man.

 

As the article shows quite well, our breakout strategies tend to be very easy to defend. We end up with our players in neutral zone formations that limit our own options and are quite easy to shut down.

 

Failing to have an effective breakout means that we spend far too much time attempting to gain entry into the attacking zone. And even when we do get the puck over the blue line, we're often unable to get set-up and end up having to rush the play and not get off quality chances.

 

And even when we do have successful entries and get set-up in the attacking zone, our formation is often too static. We don't employ enough schemes that force movement or disrupt the opposition PK formation. And this severely limits or ability to create high percentage scoring chances.

 

Definitely lots of areas to work on.

 

Hopefully some of this will improve as the players build more familiarity and start to get better reads off each other. I'm sure the coaches are aware of the issues. But there's only so much that can be done in practice. 

 

That said, I do think some of the strategies suggested by the article should be considered. I definitely think we should consider switching up our approach to the breakout. There are systems (the article offers a couple good examples) that can create more room through the neutral zone and open up space to advance the puck.

 

And, as always (seems like we've been saying it for years now), once we do gain entry and get set-up, we need a lot more movement in the attacking zone.

 

Mostly, we need be making our power play a true "man advantage." And that means using strategies where the team with the extra man dictates the play through all three zones and forces opposition PKers to continually adjust and react.

 

Right now, teams just look far too comfortable when defending the Canucks power play. And that needs to change.

A very good description of what is happening right now. Whatever system that is in place is not working. They seem to struggle to get the puck to the net every PP opportunity they get. Right from the break out on.

 

 

23 minutes ago, Tre Mac said:

1. Stop the drop pass, like now

2. Move Boeser from in front of the net to the slot

3. Add Virtanen for net front presence

 

If they do those three things I am sure that will help. 

Agree with the idea of adding Virt to the PP. While struggling to set up they usually lose the puck along the boards and the puck is sent down the ice. Virt will help with this regard in at least maintaining possession in the O'Zone.

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1 hour ago, EdgarM said:

A very good description of what is happening right now. Whatever system that is in place is not working. They seem to struggle to get the puck to the net every PP opportunity they get. Right from the break out on.

My two favourite examples from the CA article on schemes that could really help us:

 

IMG_0949.GIF.f65d1538ec364c7dd2015f62499ae774.GIF

 

The effect created by those two high forwards is a thing of beauty. The PK formation is forced to cover and defend that threat. This creates a mismatch where only one PKer is defending the two attackers breaking out. Which opens up an clear lane for the puck carrier to skate unopposed from his own Dzone, receive the puck at speed, and continue unimpeded deep into the attacking zone.

 

IMG_0948.GIF.7a763aa3a2916098a78785f5749f79e5.GIF

 

The offensive zone movement above is like a highly choreographed dance where the PP is leading and the PK is like a dancer following their partner's movement. That crossover of the attacking players through the slot creates so much space and throws that PKers off balance. Of course, there's some risk as it requires a single man up top who can walk the line and create the time necessary for the movement down low. But the rewards are obvious.

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