Just to be clear I never meant they should just blast pucks at the net.
The puck was on a tee a few times for edler tonight and he looked around to pass it then decided to shoot it, by then it was easily blocked. That to me is a wasted opportunity especially when it is constantly happening. All our guys on the blue line seem to be hesitant to fire it.
My point is the hesitation when a good shot is available results in a wasted shot where the other team has plenty of time to setup and block it. I dont say we should be constantly firing pucks at the net, but were not doing any one timers when they are available, and the hesitation when good shots are on a tee are being passed up with decisions to look for a pass and then decide to shoot later when its to late and the other team is back in position and ready to block it.
As for your powerplay pairings, i understand what your saying especially with erhoff and it would be great to have that, but with tanev out their with garrison teams are going to know who will shoot it. And even then im not sure if thats the issue, garrison, tanev, ballard, edler, hamhuis all seem tenative to shoot, not because they are not being setup properly, but because they feel they should look for passes first, and shoot as a last option. Although an erhoff option certainly would have been nice.
I would definitely try your suggestion though, it might just work and you might be right. I just worry with something like tanev/garrison teams will read who the puck is going to for a shot.
Bieksa is about the only one that seems to want to shoot it, but he does not have the best shot either.
There's certainly no guarantees it would work, but i do think that teams getting overly confident reading into who the 'shooter' is, can be an advantage in itself on the PP.
With the Schroeder/Raymond unit, you potential open up shots off the half wall, which as we saw tonight...a guy like Schroeder can wire the puck from there (albeit, maybe off the post
). Same for Raymond.
And in the case of the Sedin unit, maybe you open up some more space down low and a different set of seams for that cross-ice play they love so dearly.
Right now you're getting a box that can square up pretty consistently and pressure out as needed, and it seems to minimize the real good passing lanes. We're already getting more of Hank on the LW wall instead of the RW, presumably trying to open up the big shot of Garrison on the opposite side Right point. But it's the same sort of thing that sputtered late last year.
Again, there's no guarantees that would work. But at this point...what we've got going isn't working at all either...so what've we got to lose? And the other part of it is...without a guy like Ehrhoff who can change the dynamic on the fly...we're probably going to have to change it up relatively often with different looks and different concepts. It's not the end of the world...but without a guy like Ehrhoff who can be a true wildcard on the PP...teams are going to scout it and key in on what we're doing because it's going to be more predictable.
Yep, that's exactly it.
The thing about Garrison's one-timer is that, in Florida, he was being set up by Brian Campbell, who is even better than Ehrhoff at moving the puck around on the PP. Campbell had 30 PP assists last year. That put him second behind Giroux, ahead of names like Karlsson and Malkin.
Now, we don't have that guy, and we won't have him any time soon - the way our team is structured there's simply no room barring wholesale shake-up or the acquisition of an elite prospect. And this is where the coaching angle comes in for me, you need a re-work of out strategy so that we don't rely on quick movement from the point. I think having Garrison and Edler shoot a bit more is part of that. Right now I think they're hoping Garrison is Ehrhoff Mk.II, which he isn't.
Apart from the not shooting from the point, we are a little too static at the moment. Aside from the usual Sedin back-and-forth, there's very little movement in the PP. The passing seems to move in a ring around the outside, with no one really attempting to draw the PKers out of position, and allow one of the d-men to drop into the slot or around the other side of the net. Garrison looked like he was trying to do that against Anaheim, but mostly without success.
I agree, it's the pause that allows the PKers to get into a perfect set-up to block the shot.
I think one of the biggest things we miss with Ehrhoff, is that ability to walk the line to create new seams for passing AND shooting. Campbell is a master at it, as is a guy like Karlsson at the elite end of things. That sort of PP QB isn't an option for us right now...but i think that's one of the biggest things missing right now, and has been for a while. Having those sort of players QBing the PP allows teams to bend and break the PK box from up high, whereas we seem to struggle in doing so.
Which is i think a big part of why you see so much double-clutching from the point on our PP. It's because shooting/passing lanes simply aren't there because PKers are able to get out there and square up fairly easily. Just telescoping in and out as needed.
