Puck Movement, Player Movement, The Canucks Powerplay and the Devils Powerplay

actually, last night, im pretty sure they moved henrique up to play with kovym/zach on pp1 and elias with zubes/sykora on pp2. they should keep this moving forward.

like kevin said, its all about movement. puck movement player movement. the one thing i want to add is also the players absolutlely need to keep their feet moving , especially when they possess the puck. this is one of the biggest problems we have imo. when things start to go really wrong is when the guys stand still and become stagnant, especially with possession of the puck. The devils need quicker passes in general, more puck movmement as kevin described. but when a player does choose to possess the puck for a few extra seconds, for god sakes keep your feet moving if your going to hold in one spot!
as far as the system we employ, i was watching chicagos power play vs detroit last week and they roll exactly the same formation as the devils. main differences:
1) as kevin pointed out the puck does not go back and forth up top. it goes down low also, behind the net and back up.
2) player movement with or without the puck. players without the puck are moving around , players with the puck are constantly moving their feet, and generally not holding too long
3) shots. need more pucks on net not just from the point. eliasm/henrique need to slide in quicker ad rip more low shots frolm the half boards, these will have a high probability of a rebound kicked out in front for our garbage collector, clarkson or sykora.
im not relieving oatesof blame here, thats for sure. But i dont think its the general formation that is the problem. its the movmement of the players (or lack of) and the puck in a timely manner that is the biggest problem.

The way that Elias and Sykora can find each other is probably the closest thing we have to the Sedins. Zubrus is our Alex Burrows.

I think the key to Kovalchuk pinching in is the rest of the skaters cycling. If Kovy pinches in the Foster needs to cycle over to cover his point and Henrique needs to drop back to Foster’s point and then Kovy is on the opposite half-boards, Clarkson is in front and Parise can either stay behind the net or switch spots with Kovalchuk like in a cycle.

The Devils offense is good. They cycle the puck well at evens and they get shots on net at evens. I think the Power Play should look more like we do at evens.

The Sedins move the puck well at evens and on the power play. I don’t think there’s much of a change in style for them.

Do the Devils have anyone like the Sedins? Does anyone?

No, the Devils don’t have the Sedin twins, but they do have Zach Parise and Patrik Elias. And that’s not too shabby – not to mention Kovalchuk on the other side of the ice is a superior shooter to Bieksa, Edler, or Salo. Few goalies, if any, are at Patrick Roy’s level but a lot get pretty good results by emulating the butterfly style he brought to the highest level. Likewise, the Devils have something to learn from the Sedins and the Canucks’ PP.

last year’s power play was run generally the same and opposing teams had far fewer goals and far fewer shots/60 against

If you keep insisting on the same strategy without variation, teams will learn to beat it. And the PK that works is to put tons of pressure on the three points around the umbrella – and we’re seeing a combination effect of every team learning to apply that pressure combined with the Devils’ own failing confidence in their PP.

Him pinching down is bound to result in more shorthanded chances.

Kovalchuk pinching down only makes sense in a paradigm where the puck is more frequently handled down low by Parise. There’s no suggestion here that Foster and Elias play with the puck at the points while Kovalchuk heads to the front of the net. On the other hand, if Parise is handling the puck more frequently out of the corner, the penalty killers are drawn further down below the hash marks as well as facing more toward their own goal more than facing the Devils’ goal. To generate a shorthanded chance, they’d have to take the puck, pivot around and take two extra strides to get out of their own zone. Those two extra strides in the zone not only mean they have further to go to get to the Devils’ goal, but also give Elias and Kovalchuk more time to press them into a turnover and make them much more likely to ice the puck rather than try to carry it out themselves.

So, the point isn’t that Kovalchuk’s pinching is going to prevent shorthanded chances in and of itself, but that attacking from more of a down-low position will help reduce shorthanded chances against, and Kovalchuk’s pinching further forces the penalty killers to collapse down low.

I think the Devils need is another Rafalski type point PP man.

Mark Fayne already does this. Not as well as Rafalski did, but he has that softer, deflectable shot and he finds a way to get it on goal. Adam Larsson can be taught to do this sort of thing as well…. but I’d just as soon keep him off the PP and try to keep his TOI down this season.

Zach Parise is not our best player at handling the puck on the power play. His ability is to tip pucks and create screens, he is where he should be. One problem with the current PP set up is that it’s predicated on the idea that Kovalchuk can beat people from way out high, which on occasion he can, but if he doesn’t, the puck rarely ends up somewhere where a Devils player can get to it.

I like Tedenby’s creativity, speed, and unpredictability, but who would he replace on the 2nd PP unit? He doesn’t have the strength to stand in front of the net, he doesn’t shoot as well as Sykora, and he doesn’t have Henrique’s savvy and slowing down and controlling the play.