Canucks PK - shots off the half wall

[dougieL]

Is anyone bothered by our PK's permissiveness in letting the opposing half wall player walk in to near the face off dot and unload on a wrist shot? It either gives up a great shot on goal (one goal by Nashville yesterday, one off the post) or it forces the dman to block a heavy shot. This has been a consistent theme throughout the Green/Baumgartner tenure and continues under Boudreau/Walker. My observation is that other teams don't give us those shots on our PP, but I could be wrong.

 

 

[grumpyone]

what I noticed is that our 'box' on the pk is too close together. 

the Capital's box was a lot more spread apart and while this opens up for the 'bumper shot' that Horvat likes, it puts more pressure on the 4 outside passers.

[King Heffy]

I prefer a 1-2-1 formation to a box, more pressure on the puck carrier is generated that way.  Got to be able to skate and have good condition to make it work.

[Fanuck]

I would like to see a high-pressure PK where you take away time/space from the opposing team (even better yet, seldom allow the opposition to get established in your own zone is preferred) - that said however, a coach needs the right personnel at his/her disposal and said personnel need to be well educated on how to execute this type of system - not to mention, this system works best when you have set groups who are always deployed together so they truly work as one PK unit - we had regular injuries that prevented this from happening in the recent past.  Credit, our PK has improved lately.    

[Kevin Biestra]

4-0-0 penalty kill is the way to go.  Demko can handle the shots and just needs to work on his breakout pass.

[Jester13]

 

1 hour ago, King Heffy said:

I prefer a 1-2-1 formation to a box, more pressure on the puck carrier is generated that way.  Got to be able to skate and have good condition to make it work.

This. Pressure and stamina. The more you pressure, the more tired you get, but the other team tires as well, so if you can outlast their hustle you should do well. 

[alt kilgore]

On 1/19/2022 at 4:18 PM, Jester13 said:

 

This. Pressure and stamina. The more you pressure, the more tired you get, but the other team tires as well, so if you can outlast their hustle you should do well. 

 

This always seems to work better than a stagnant box. Standing around waiting for something to happen, and then react.  But chances are, if there is a shot and rebound up for grabs, because they've been standing still for so long, and the other team is skating all over the zone, the other team will most likely get to that rebound first.  And it all starts again.

 

Now I think they are starting with an aggressive kill most nights compared to under Green.  At least to start a PK.  If they can't recover the puck right away, its only logical that they then fall back and defend the front of the net.  Its a fine line.  Suffuse to say they stay on the aggressive side longer now under Bruce. But lately they've fallen back to the box right away again. Obviously its riskier to be more aggressive, in the sense that a player may over commit to attacking one player which opens up a shooter for a clear shot on net.  But its also risky to just let the other team just treat their PP like a firing range.  And just hope like heck that you can get just one of those rebounds and shoot the puck down the ice. 

 

That brings me to the most frustrating part of the Canucks PK. whether they fall back into a box or not, when they do get control of the puck again, after a chance on net by the opposition, its that puck management within that second where they seem to lack direction.  Its like they've practised the PK only up to the point where they recover the puck.  Then its like....."now what?"  They do dumb things like try to pass it off, in the D zone, cross ice to another teammate, who will have an opposition player on him immediately to check him. Or pass it to a player right before the blue line in a crowd, which inevitably gets the puck turned over again.  Myers, who's been great this year in every other area, is horrible at giveaways in our own zone. I'd add Miller and Horvat.  They have to get better at that first pass.

 

 

Edited January 22, 2022 by kilgore

[dougieL]

Our last two shorthanded goals against have come as a result of lack of pressure on the half wall player...an ongoing theme this season.