Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

The Drop-Back Pass On The Power Play

03/10/2018 at 1:22pm EST

from Fluto Shinzawa of the Boston Globe,

On March 3, as Paul Byron carried the puck through the neutral zone during a Montreal power play, Sean Kuraly almost paid the Canadien no mind. Kuraly practically skated behind Byron without even so much as a hint at attacking the puck carrier and denying him entry into the Bruins’ zone. This was by design.

Like many teams, Montreal runs the delay on its power play. Its intention is to drop the puck back to one of its two trailers — the wizardly Jonathan Drouin being the No. 1 option — and disrupt the penalty killers’ gaps. Because of this approach, they want the opposing forward to close on the puck carrier. Once that happens, the Canadiens will drop the puck back to Drouin and force F1 to re-gap. ...

For teams that like the delay, the first setup is to use two trailers. That way, if the first trailer runs into a roadblock once accepting the drop pass, he always has the second trailer as an option. The Bruins utilized the delay earlier this season. Torey Krug would carry the puck up the ice. David Pastrnak and Ryan Spooner were the trailers. Krug would usually drop the puck to Pastrnak. If Pastrnak couldn’t gain the zone cleanly, he could dish to Spooner on the left.

The wrinkle that power plays introduce is when they only use one trailer. In those cases, F1 has to adjust his route and be more aggressive on his approach in the neutral zone.

more plus other topics including a look at Colin Larkin, Dylan's older brother...

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

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