Canes Powerplay Needs a Jolt
by Bob Wage on Nov 30, 2008 1:34 AM EST
4 comments
The Hurricanes have struggled mightily while on the powerplay in recent games and no one seems to have answers on how to fix it. Results in their past seven games could be considered even worse than an exercise in futility as they have scored just one time in the past 30 attempts.
Their ineptitude has dropped the Canes to a ranking of 29th in league, (13.4%).
One of the reasons Carolina invested in puck-moving defensemen was to help them to finesse the puck into the offensive zone, but instead of carrying the puck in while attacking on the powerplay, most times the team seems happy to dump the puck and chase it. The opposition has anticipated this strategy and quite often will beat the Canes to the puck.
While performance with the man advantage has been more than frustrating, what is even harder to explain is that the team has yet to score all season long while playing with a two-man advantage. They are currently 0-8 in 5-on-3 situations.
The team's failure to perform well with any advantage has contributed to their overall scoring woes this season. Last year after 24 games the Hurricanes had scored 80 goals. So far this season, they have just 64.
Can some home-cooking help? Carolina will play their next four games in the friendly confines of the RBC. Even though their home record (6-6), is worse than away, (6-4-2), in most cases playing at home is a benefit.
We will see if it helps the Canes in the next four games. The opposition will be tough, (the Ducks, Penguins, Flyers, and Capitals). They will need every advantage they can get.
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In other brief news-
Brian Burke has officially been given control of the Toronto Maple Leafs in a signing that most people in hockey saw coming a year ago. Jim Kelley from SI.com has an interesting article about the possible problems of having two Americans running "Canada's Team".
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Our friends at the Illegal Curve asked yours truly to write up a brief year-to-date review about the Hurricanes exploits so far this season. I sent in a synopsis a couple of games ago and it can be found here along with writeups about the other teams of the Southeast.
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Our PP sucks because Peter constantly puts the same line out there (which by the way is the WRONG line). Peter loves to switch the lines around but not for the PP. Maybe he should try putting the hot ones in and we know who they are.
The Crapitals are playing PP with five forwards and it seems to be working for them (not last night against CBJ).
Not sure thats something we could try but we need to try something different.
by canescup on Nov 30, 2008 9:56 AM EST reply actions
The power play….we’ve all heard in the past “If the Power play is on, so goes the remainder of the team play.” Well no mystery that the power play is the one thing that has been off all season. So I’ll rephrase, “If the forwards are on, so goes the remainder of the team.” I believe that the worries are bogged down on two issues and the first definitely more significant than the last.
Primarily puck possession-with all the skilled players the Canes have at the forward positions they are doing a terrible job of setting the tone for any aspect of their game, especially the power play. For a team that is designed to generate offense, the transition game is absent far too many times on the man advantage so we see the “dump and chase” and when this team has the skill/talent to penetrate the opposing blue line and set things up to find success. But again the lack of performance/execution is has been the only consistency here.
Second, the coaching of the power play unit. While this issue was something in the past seasons that “Jake” (Jeff Daniels) worked directly with I believe we have seen some transitioning lag to the coaching change. So quite possibly the chemistry might be a bit shaken on this front even at this point of the season.
While this might be apples and oranges, let’s do some power play % comparison on the two coaches over the past three seasons. In Albany under Tom Rowe, the River Rats power play average ranking was 21st overall (out of 27 teams)….currently under Coach Daniels the River Rats are ranked 23rd a repeat from last season. So no improvement but no worse off. In Raleigh, the Hurricanes power play % over the past three seasons average out to 17th…. and currently under Rowe are 29th.
While some of you may cry BS to this… I said its apples to oranges. We can all agree the number of skill players at the NHL level far exceeds the AHL, so the coaching will be a larger challenge and will simply require more time to develop. But how much time is Rutherford willing to give??
by Eman on Nov 30, 2008 11:22 AM EST reply actions
If you watch the dynamic of the Canes power play, you can see some disturbing trends. First, they give up possession at the blue line a very high percentage of the time. When you do that, all the opposition has to do is just race back and knock the puck out of their end. Most teams now have the Canes game plan. They stand up at the blue line then rush back to get to the free puck first. They then clear the puck out of the zone anywhere except to the points which is where the Canes set up. It happens over and over again. The Canes dump the puck in so often that when they actually drive the net, the other team is surprised and can be beat just like the Samsanov game winner last week.
The fix is simple, Matt Cullen, Samsonov, and Eric Staal should be bringing the puck up the ice everytime. These guys have the most skill and can actually penetrate the other teams’ defense. They need to dump and run only 20 percent of the time. Their first play should be to possess into the zone, their second option should be dump and run. Joe Corvo has the ability to do this too. He should be told by Laviolette that he can only dump and run twice per game. The extra posession time alone will increase their success rate by 5%. They also do not make strong quick moves on the power play. If they make strong moves with conviction, the defense gets on its heals and moves in toward the net. This gives the perimeter players space to take a pass and shoot or pass again.
Right now, the league knows all about this team. There are no surprises or wrinkles. If you want to win against the Canes, 1)play tough 2) finish checks 3) agressive on defense 4)rush defend the PP
The power play means power move time. Possess the puck, make power moves and the pp will get better, much better.
by Ken on Nov 30, 2008 12:41 PM EST reply actions
Wow, good posts!!!
I would modify/add to Ken’s, though. You can’t tell Corvo “only twice a game”. While I agree with the principal, that won’t work, if nothing else he may need to do it more than that just to make a line change happen.
That aside, what about letting some of the D guys bring it up? I agree with all the above!! “But” most of our D guys are fast and talented enough to bring it in. Last game one of the good points was when Samsinov had to fall back and be the second man cover, he raised his arm and hollared out who he was taking. I thought that was a good play. Several games ago I noticed the d was bringing it in and the team did a great job of covering. I gues what I am saying is agree and while we all want Staal et al to bring it in and score, right now the D guys are hot. Let’s open the ice up, I read somewhere that’s what the coach likes…., anyway, have the forwards come up and cover the blue line and let Corvo or whoever skate the biscuit in. If it’s a shot situation, shoot, if it’s a cycle, then cycle the dam thing and get the forwards on spot. It really is AHL level plays were talking about. I also think Walker, Ruutu and Cullen if he can hang need to be the guys double shifting. They are VERY capable players and they got the hot stick and bang bodies (yes Cullen, look at the last couple games he’s played). Limit Samsinov, if he has the puck more than 4 seconds and doesn’t shoot stomp on his teddy bear. If he’d shoot more, he’d score more.
Last but not least, is play Sutter more. The kids hot, he’s on a roll, play him until it hurts. We have not only not gotten a shorty, but the only few chances we have had were all Sutter. So let’s see if he can translate that into bringing the biscuit in and developing plays. I would suggest let him feed Samsinov and Ruutu maybe as a line.
Though I liked the Cullen line the other night ALOT.
Look for alot of banging tonight out of the ducks. I think Staal and Brindy will be non issues as they will be the main targets. Some nice secondary scoring (all we have had this year) from Whitney, Ruutu, Cullen, Samsinov, etc. will go along way to get this needed two points.
Come on ’Canes!!!
A
by Paladin6 on Nov 30, 2008 2:27 PM EST reply actions
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