Powerplay

[longtimefan7]

mm

[Tinner]

I think the twist on that is "whos" on the front end. It may not have anything to do with the players (to some extent). Maybe its the system and if the system stays the same every pp, its not hard for teams to defend. Another note, the lack of a pure offensive dman hurts any pp in terms of controlling what happens. With Hanzel up front, he controls everything down low, but as soon as the puck moves high, teams attack the back end vigorously because they know whos back there......and it doesn't matter whos there. Other than keeping Hanzel up front, everything else seems to be interchangeable because of the team makeup.

[RebelsFan]

Some observations from watching many teams power plays not just the Rebels. When coaches try to put forwards on the point two things happen.1) Forwards aren't as adept at keeping the puck in th zone as the dmen are. That's just because the d-men do it all game and the forwards do it only during the powerplay. 2) forwards are great at handling the puck and skating at speed. D-men (in my opinion only) seem to be better at handling the puck in the last 6 feet of the zone through puck protection. This trend to having forwards on the point, while it may work on some teams, doesn't work on all teams. How many pucks are bounced out of the opositins end or poked away from the forward on the point during the power play. Many times this leads to an odd man rush against the powerplay team. As I said this comment isn't just about the Rebels but a trend I think I have seen.

[hockey4]

Seeing that Sutter tinkers with his pp every 5-7 games to see what the results are, i would expect there to be some more tinkering soon. Hanzal i dont think knows how to start the breakout properly, Brandon Sutter at times has poor shot selection (mind you he did rip that one in sask last night), and henry just isnt smart enough. But hey, we beat swift and sak quite handly wiht only one pp goal so im not too worried. i was more concerned about our 5 on 5 effort.

[FreddieFender]

Here's my two cents worth, regarding the power play. Hanzal and Brandon Sutter are equally effective on the back end. Both are prone to the typical forward type of mistakes back there, but both see the ice well. However, Hanzal is far better than Brandon down low. Therefore, Hanzal should return to the forward unit on the power play, playing on the same side of the rink as Sutter.

[SWANSKI]

PLAIN AND SIMPLE THE POWERPLAY DOESNT work unless you have traffic, hemsky without Smyth kind of example. Players like Brett Sutter Vandermeer , Moore have been more effective than the big gunners because they dont try and get the pretty goal, down low work, down low passing and defections or shots from the mid slot. Hanzel - Starkov score the pretty pp goals but they all count. Brandon Sutter should be on the point probably with Henry????.

[SectionNDeserter]

The biggest problem I have with our powerplay, as it has also been the biggest problem with the team at even strength as well, is that most of our defensemen are struggling to move the puck from our own end of the ice. When our penalty-killing opponents ice the puck, you can almost be guaranteed that it will take us an entire minute to get possession of the puck in the offensive zone again. Having puck possession in the offensive zone for a small fraction of the power play certainly won't boost a team's power play percentage.

The second biggest problem is that far too often our players 'dump and chase'. It is a great strategy when you have someone 'chasing', but too often this year they have dumped the puck in WAY too soon for anyone to run it down, and other times the forward(s) chasing the puck down haven't been able to beat their opponents to the puck (which on the powerplay, takes us back to problem #1).

[Tinner]

As far as the "dump and chase" goes, 2 things have to happen that aren't, one, when you "dump" your supposed to "chase" but the Rebels use it to change lines and secondly, speed of the forwards comes into play. When our quicker forwards are out there, they are too far up the ice by the time the puck handler gets to center that they are stopped at the blueline. The dump is completed but the chase is just that, we end up chasing their man who has the puck.

[SectionNDeserter]

I personally don't consider hammering the puck off the boards from our end (the only way that 5 or 6 of our 7 defensemen can consistently and safely get the puck out of our end), to a mix of players from both teams in the neutral zone a "pass"--I call that a safe but uncreative way to get the puck out of your zone so that the other team doesn't take the puck away from you and score. We have had 2 or 3 full lines of forwards in the past that could pull this off, but not this year. Some of our forwards can sometimes gain control of the random bounce off the boards that has passed for a breakout play this year, but as you say, a lot of the others have struggled.

[hockey4]

The fact is learn to catch a pass and things will run smoother.

o ok. Sutter has brought in kids who have managed to play elite hockey for 6 years and cant catch passes. give me a break. The game against chilliwack, the pp was in there end edleast 70% of the time on most pp's, so the possesion is there. if i was to recommend something, it would be just to put the puck on net more. There formation seems fine and i dont mind the breakout. maybe the kids are thinking to much because of there lack of success on the pp. put the puck on net and anything can happen.

[nivek_wahs]

My gripe about the POWERPLAY is now in the right thread. Again only firing at 9% over the past 3 games...impressive.Since the Pats scored 4 goals on 11 opportunities vs. Moose Jaw on Feb. 6, the Pats are now 1 for 18 their last 3 games... let me get my calculator out...oh let's see that's an astounding 5.6%. It really makes no sense to complain.

[hockey4]

although we did go 0-9 or somin on the pp tonight, ill bet the puck was in pa's end 90% of the time. So really, the breakout isnt the problem, its just a matter of getting shots through.

[Tinner]

I think this was a game where you could pad your pp stats just because PA is not one of the powerhouse teams in the league. That said, the breakout should have been more sucessful. PA is a young team, in fact, I believe they are the youngest team in the league, and they played the type of game they can be sucessful at. We may have directed a lot of shots at the net, but quality over quantity limited the scoring.

[hockey4]

theres nobody else to do it so theres no point getting down on morin. He is young, but it will pay off next year. And there really was no issues with the breakout, the problems are having good shot selection, rebounds, and redirections. I have no problem at all actually with the breakout

[SectionNDeserter]

The breakout wasn't a problem last night, but it has been terrible all year for the most part. PA wasn't really forechecking at all for a good chunk of the game, which did make it a lot easier to move the puck. I really liked seeing Egener rushing up the ice with the puck, and I thought that it was one of his better games this season--he needs to do that a lot more.

I think Morin has been very strong on the powerplay, and some nights looks better than Henry back there. He moves the puck around good, and his shots are almost always at the perfect height for the forwards to tip the puck. If the goalie has a good view of his shots on the powerplay, that is the forwards' problem, not his. None of the other defensemen have looked good at all on the power play. Egener and Berube have been used on the powerplay, but have done little more than sometimes keep the puck in the zone. I don't know if I have seen Lamoureux or Lynch back there on the powerplay this season, but I don't think they have shown the offensive instincts of Berube or even Egener at even strength, so I don't know how they would fare back there. Who else do you put back there besides forwards then?

[SectionNDeserter]

Keeping the puck in the zone on a pp is very important. To date with who we are using it seems to be a HUGE problem.None of our defensemen that I have seen have had a huge problem with it, at least not with keeping in the clearing attempts that they 'should' be keeping in.


So to say Berube and Egener only add that dimension to the pp isn't such a bad thing. Look at the stats as well Berube has gotten most of his points on the pp.It is one of the 'basic' parts of a good powerplay unit, ANYONE on the powerplay should have this ability pretty much mastered. Moving the puck around and getting shots through (and on) to the net are what makes a player good on the powerplay. If they are just keeping the puck in, and shooting the puck into the defender's legs/chest, they are 'getting by' but not performing well on the powerplay. Berube has a lot of his points on the powerplay, however he hasn't looked good on the power play so far in 2007


Now with that in mind I wasn't only thinking of changing the back end but maybe a player or two up front. Doucet is playing good agressive hockey right now with plenty of opportunity. Why not put him out on the first unit with Hanzal and Starkov, or maybe with Moore and Starkov.I couldn't agree more with this statement. I wouldn't even mind seeing him back on the point, as he certainly has one of the harder shots on the team, and has been working quite hard. I have been dissapointed with the effort put forth by some of my favorite players the last 5 games or so (Brandon Sutter, Berube) and moving him and some other guys up might shake these guys up a little and get their heads in the game a little bit more than they have been.

[longtimefan7]

Nice to see the pp get a couple over the weekend. I think the changes did some good. Lets hope they keep coming.

[3rebels]

Please move Brandon off the point on the pp. His soft passes almost scare the hell out of me. Reminiscent of Blair Jones and his behind-the-back no-look passes!!

[SectionNDeserter]

Please move Brandon off the point on the pp. His soft passes almost scare the hell out of me. Reminiscent of Blair Jones and his behind-the-back no-look passes!!I think for the most part he has been pretty good back there, though he has looked lost everywhere on the ice in the last 6 games or so, not just on the point.

[mapletoft]

I think for the most part he has been pretty good back there, though he has looked lost everywhere on the ice in the last 6 games or so, not just on the point.

Do you think he looks kinda worn out from a long season...Under 18's to now...?

[SectionNDeserter]

Do you think he looks kinda worn out from a long season...Under 18's to now...?Mentally worn down perhaps, he sure turned on the jets a few times last game and hasn't looked any more physically tired than usual.