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2023-2024 Penalty Kill Discussion

F A N

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Aug 12, 2005
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So we aren't "historically bad" this season but we are still sitting 22nd in the league while being "propped up by Demko." Percentage and ranking wise were were better in Green's early years including 20-21.

I just don't get it. We've changed coaches. We've changed D personnel (Myers being the holdover and he's not averaging top PK minutes). We've kind of changed forwards up front (including no Horvat).

Is it Petey and Miller? Last season I thought Miller needed to get off the PK. They were part of the "historically bad" PK era. I mean "Pew" Suter is not available but he wasn't averaging top minutes either. Blueger, Mik, and Lafferty aren't either.

Love to here some analysis and possible solutions.
 
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We really don’t have a top shutdown D in the Tanev mould and outside our top pair on D it’s still a pretty weak group. Hughes and Hronek would probably improve the PK but they play too many minutes already.
Don’t think we will improve to the top half of the league until the D group improves.
 
I'm not that surprised, I would've guessed they'd be around 20th or late teens. People kept quoting the PK% during the Tocchet bump last year, but that was inflated by the bad puck luck earlier in the season correcting itself, the PK last year was bad but not as bad as the first half of the season or as good as the 2nd half of the season. The boring answer was that it more in the middle of those 2. They added some PK guys up front but without Soucy all they have is Cole as the PK upgrade back on defense(Hronek is meh on the PK imo)

xGA is flawed but when the team ranks 6th-lowest in the league at xGA/60 at 4v5 then you probably have some issues, but luckily there's Demko so bump that up a bit and you should be in that late teens-20th range.
 
Just don't have the personnel, pretty much as simple as that.

No forwards or D-men that are true shutdown dynamos.

When on top of his game, Mikheyev should be a PP disrupter but he's still a step behind as he recovers from surgery.

Out of our top 2 RD's, one is more of an offensive player with not much size and the other is, well, Myers.

The list goes on.
 
A lack of a true face off ace is probably hurting us. And we could definitely improve on challenging entries through the neutral zone.
 
Good topic, it's something I've been thinking about as well. While the personnel have improved we're still missing one more strong shutdown defenceman and a right-handed shutdown (or at least two-way) C imo.
 
Demko isnt the best with tracking pucks at the best of times. Having a bunch of players-mainly ours screening him doesnt help
 
LuckyDay said:
Restart...when Myers lays his full body on the ice to stop the cross ice pass down low there's nothing that gets past it.
Click to expand...
1) Prone on the ice is not an ideal defensive position.
2) Saucer passes exist.
3) I don’t trust Myers defensive instincts to properly block shots let alone cross ice passes.
 
It's not just the D. The forwards are too passive. Need to be aggressive when you have a player in a bad spot but they almost always back off, doesnt matter if it's a superstar or plug.

Or need a pair of elite shot blockers if they want to be passive
 
You know how the conventional roster composition has a shut down pairing?
Well our ex GM couldn’t get that done because he kinda ran out of time and stuff.

The current management will have to figure it out when they clear more cap which I don’t think they’re gonna be able to do that anytime soon. Maybe next off season.
 
Canucker said:
1) Prone on the ice is not an ideal defensive position.
2) Saucer passes exist.
3) I don’t trust Myers defensive instincts to properly block shots let alone cross ice passes.
Click to expand...
1) it's pretty common now to block deep passes
2) those are hard
3) IMO Myers doesn't get enough credit, but that's my opinion and I acknowledge I'm in the minority
 
LuckyDay said:
1) it's pretty common now to block deep passes
2) those are hard
3) IMO Myers doesn't get enough credit, but that's my opinion and I acknowledge I'm in the minority
Click to expand...

Its a common defense on a 2-on-1 to block a cross ice pass...i still wouldn't say its a good practice on a PK to lay prone on the ice.

If you are on an NHL PP and you can't perform a decent saucer pass, you probably don't belong on an NHL PP unit.

TBH I'm not sure where Myers doesn't get enough credit? When he makes a good play, people are amazed and immediately take notice and say something about it...it just doesn't happen nearly as often has his bungles.
 
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Canucker said:
Its a common defense on a 2-on-1 to block a cross ice pass...i still wouldn't say its a good practice on a PK to lay prone on the ice.

If you are on an NHL PP and you can't perform a decent saucer pass, you probably don't belong on an NHL PP unit.

TBH I'm not sure where Myers doesn't get enough credit? When he makes a good play, people are amazed and immediately take notice and say something about it...it just doesn't happen nearly as often has his bungles.
Click to expand...
I think they acknowledge his incredible backchecking and reach when it happens all the time but forget it quickly or don't count it into his favor. Since he's a marked man only the mistakes count and that's what people remember. Also, his size makes the difference in both cases. He stands out so its harder to see other players mistakes. He also doesn't get the benefit from his size from the officials or the opposition re: the complaint about the "high" hit from Edmonton the other night when it was a shoulder to the chest. At least the officials recognized it was legit and it was devastating. He was right tonight, the player did skate into him but he did reach on instinct when he did that. Whether it someone else it would be questionable but it was easy for the ref in this case because he's so visible.
 
He's a "marked man" for a reason though...he's a $6m cap hit defenseman who, despite his considerable tools, is an abysmal defender. He "stands out" because he's terrible...his makes are obvious and plentiful, which is why people rag on him. People rag on players who don't perform (they actually rag on everyone around here, performing or not)...people ragged on Gudbranson, he was terrible...they ragged on Luca Sbisa, because he was terrible, last year they ragged on Demko and Boeser because they were terrible. It's just how that works, I don't think its knit-picking or anything, its just pointing out the obvious.
 
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