Abel to Yzerman

Abel to Yzerman

A2Y Fixing The Power Play

01/10/2023 at 8:39am EST

from Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press,

The power play has been the most glaring failure, because unlike earlier in the season, it hasn't even been generating momentum.

"There’s some momentum drain, for sure," Lalonde said. "The other night, our five-on-five play was good, and we sprinkled in those two power plays and it kind of deflated us. You want possession, you want looks. We are going to put both Fabs and Bert together on the power play and we need to start figuring some things out for a little spark."

Lalonde had Bertuzzi and Fabbri on the same power play unit in Monday's practice, with Larkin, Perron and Filip Hronek. (Moritz Seider, Jake Walman, Raymond, Berggren and Sundqvist were on the other unit.) Perron said the units need to play with more pace and "make sure that we are all connected, all five of us. The moment there is one guy that is not connected, it changes everything.

"Having that poise and that confidence and that patience that when you get in the o-zone, you see a play, it might not be the right play, but you keep building your cycle game, where 10 seconds later there’s a better look for you. That’s the one you score on. If you don’t, it’s the same as with the power play — you bring momentum, 10 seconds more in their zone, 10 seconds they have to stop and play in their d-zone. You do that enough, the top players on the other side, eventually they get tired, they start forcing plays, you get two-on-ones, things like that."

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MurrayChadwick

Fire Blashill, this has been his fault for years, and there's no excuse this year, Yzerman acquired him free agent NHL PP talent. 


Start by removing Larkin from your 1st unit PP, replace him with Fabri in the bumper and put Bergerren on his flank.


And just a thought, but maybe give Bertuzzi a game or two to get his legs underneath him and his head back to game speed before sticking him on the 1st unit.  He belongs there, but in 2-3 games.

Chet

Whats Perron talking about? Their problem is mainly how rarely they even get set up in the O zone. 

MurrayChadwickChet

Getting set up can be an issue as well, but Perron is spot on, and its often Larkin and unfortunately Raymond pressing or a bit out of sorts. When they do move the puck, its too slow and not precise enough. Didn't help to have Ras out there either, like what he brings, but advantage on PP was not it. 

damndogrevenge

I was surprised Yzerman kept Tanguay around. He was not effective last year and with more "talent" this year same result.  Perron seems gassed lately and i agree with Murray, move Larkin to second unit. It may help balance the attack as well. The biggest issues with the unit is too many shots from the blue line, zero sustained net front presence, poor retrieval and not enough willing bodies to take shots within the slot.  Raymond seems to becoming a one trick pony on the PP. He sits to the left of the goal most times. He needs to move around in the slot more with that shot of his. Same with kubalic. If i can predict their PP then any coaching staff in the league looks at  Detroit's PP as stoppable.Detroit needs a Dino or a Homer. Maybe use Sonny in that spot for now. I know he is slow as Larry Murphy his last few seasons but I hate to see Bert take more punishment on his back playing net front.I do worry more about the penalty kill more than the PP. It has been atrocious. They leave the other teams quarterback wide open almost every game, at least the last 10 games.  Dougie Hamilton could of scored on every PP when Detroit played Florida. Put your fast skaters up front against the opposing D and create some pressure to allow your own D men some space to shutdown the down low players. I am not sure what happened, the pk was solid the first half of the season. Time to move some bodies around..

VPalmer

Let's not forget our PP looked great at the beginning of the season. Even when they were not scoring, the puck movement was fantastic, it was almost like Lids, Dats and Z were on a powerplay. But something happened in the last 10 games or so, the PP reverted to last year when we cannot even enter the zone and the puck movement is slow and no players' movement. So, we know it could work. And it's absolutely true that PP is the key to our success as a team.

HippyDave

I'll be floored if Tanguay is on the coaching staff next season.  

Raymond was OK as the bumper but I think he's not seasoned enough to be on PP1.  Getting Bert back to muck it up in front of the crease will stir the drink, but, echoing what you've all said, I think the entire set of plays to get it into the zone and set up need reworking.  We need to work on our passing and puck recovery.  It would be nice to get a Vrana or a Zadina up to speed to hold the shotgun on the left circle, though Perron is quite useful there.

I miss the days when we would cycle more on the PP, it would confuse the penalty killers and create more lanes.

Heck if it means we get a 3.5% chance at Bedard over a 2.5% chance, I'm fine with things as they are. :)

ChetHippyDave

Yeah, this season is over for Detroits playoff aspirations. As of today, the entire East looks basically settled as far as whos in or out of the playoffs. Them losing more is, yet again, better long term since this is another lost season. 

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