Our first Powerplay unit (must) change long before the playoffs

[stickty111]

There is more wrong than our power play sire

One game left in March,played 13. Scored 38,gave up 36. If we lose to the Jets on wednesday we will be 7wins/7losses for march. 25% of the season was March and they weren’t a playoff team for the entire month.
We have more problems than powerplay.

Management knows we have two injured Goalies and play both and injure them further. Still soft. Slower and older to boot. Dubas just sits around watching it fold up again.

Thornton shouldn’t be on any power play in the league. Zero goals and 3 assists in last 15 games. He needs to sit. He’s done and getting 15 minutes a game. It’s B.S. He needs to be healthy scratched. Period he’s a good cheerleader apparently, so let him cheer lead. He’s not leading on the ice. Sick of the cozy narrative with a player. I don’t care who likes him.

 

[Stephen]

You're overthinking Brodie for Rielly IMO.

I would be curious to see a PP1 without Rielly running the transition.

 

[frizzer1]

I know that Matthews has that one timer from the right side but I still prefer Marner coming off the right point with Matthews on the left.
Rielly on the point., simmons net front, Tavares bumper.

 

[Gallagbi]

I would be curious to see a PP1 without Rielly running the transition.

He really doesn't run much of it now, he retrieves the puck and then drops pack with 2 supports. Any D we have will run something similar

 

[Stephen]

He really doesn't run much of it now, he retrieves the puck and then drops pack with 2 supports. Any D we have will run something similar

Well one thing that unit seems to miss is just a smooth clean puck mover to transition into the zone so I want to see Nylander in that role cause he’s good at those zone entries. Brodie would be there for a defensive outlet and general puck movement as the other point man.

 

[Stephen]

I know that Matthews has that one timer from the right side but I still prefer Marner coming off the right point with Matthews on the left.
Rielly on the point., simmons net front, Tavares bumper.

Yeah it would help if they could run different patterns in game. So PK units have a difficult time game planning.

 

[TMLAM34]

I love Rielly but he’s awful on the first powerplay unit. He’s literally no threat back there which allows teams to collapse further down taking away any Mitch Marner cross ice passes he used to do and makes it harder to get pucks to the net.

 

[Rude Dog]

Tavares should be on PP1. Mix up the Mathews shot with a quick down low play where you pass it beside the net to Tavares in the slot for a quick one timer. Worked a lot when Tavares scored 47. Not enough scorers when Thornton and Simmonds are in.

 

[Rude Dog]

I've been saying it for a while. Leafs PP is just way too PREDICTIBLE. Shots always come from Matthews. Rielly hardly ever shoots.

They gotta mix it up OR change the personnel on the PP to keep opposition guessing.

Rielly should never shoot. Nothing good ever comes of it.

 

[Martin Skoula]

Rielly should never shoot. Nothing good ever comes of it.

I'm fairly confident it's approaching a coinflip on whether the shot is gonna hit the net or lose the zone.

 

[Rude Dog]

The more scorers you have on the ice the more Marner can also surprise the goalie with a quick shot assuming he is passing. I am in the load it up camp. Give them min 90 seconds. They don’t get many pp. Don’t waste them. But I feel this is Keefes way of getting Thornton some ice time if he is playing 4th line mins.

 

[TMLAM34]

The more scorers you have on the ice the more Marner can also surprise the goalie with a quick shot assuming he is passing. I am in the load it up camp. Give them min 90 seconds. They don’t get many pp. Don’t waste them. But I feel this is Keefes way of getting Thornton some ice time if he is playing 4th line mins.

Thornton shouldn’t even be in the lineup. But given what he brings to the locker room and his hall of fame career I doubt Keefe removes him from the lineup. I’d honestly rather see Joey Anderson play on the 4th line than Thornton.

 

[Not My Tempo]

I feel we don’t use the bumper enough.

A play that both Tampa and the Caps use a lot is passing it down low to the guy on the goal line. While the defenders are turning to the now goal line player, he passes it back to the bumper for a quick shot. We actually did this quite a bit last year with Matthews to Nylander to Tavares, and when the shot doesn’t go in those three guys would crash the crease.

Load it up. Since last year, with all 4 we have 10.9 GF/60. Just Matthews and Marner without the other two have 8.87 GF/60.

 

[Gallagbi]

Well one thing that unit seems to miss is just a smooth clean puck mover to transition into the zone so I want to see Nylander in that role cause he’s good at those zone entries. Brodie would be there for a defensive outlet and general puck movement as the other point man.

I still think you're overthinking Brodie. You make Nylander the handler instead of Marner and accomplish what you want. Rielly stays on and is simply a better offensive option on the regular.

Marner's entries, specifically his entry passes, have been lacking. Rarely seems to hit someone in stride or on the tape. I'd much rather see him low and Nylander high in the shooter spot while also taking care of entries.

You could also add a lot more rotation since all 4 fwds can play high and low comfortably

 

[SprDaVE]

 

[PromisedLand]

Just goes on to say how uninformed and useless the so called "advanced" stats are....

I guess every goalie leafs play is vezina caliber eh? its not like the PP execution is freakin' DUMB or something.....

 

[SprDaVE]

Just goes on to say how uninformed and useless the so called "advanced" stats are....

I guess every goalie leafs play is vezina caliber eh? its not like the PP execution is freakin' DUMB or something.....

It goes to show that they are creating shots and chances but there's sometimes some form of luck where you don't get the bounces or see a lot of good goaltending in those stretches. You don't need stats to see how they haven't been that bad on most PP chances. This just helps support it.

With all that said, they can be better here. Keefe trying to galaxy brain the lines is the most annoying... just load it up and leave them there. Not sure why he needs to separate the top players all the time.

I will say, I find the suggestion that statistics like shots, blocked, shooting percentage, etc are "uninformed" is super ironic and hilarious.

 

[Gallagbi]

Just goes on to say how uninformed and useless the so called "advanced" stats are....

I guess every goalie leafs play is vezina caliber eh? its not like the PP execution is freakin' DUMB or something.....

Or the general ups and downs of the season. Sometimes pucks go in, sometimes they hit posts.

 

[Wafflewhipper]

Morgan Rielly kills our power play in so many ways. Never mind even getting me going on how he played the overtime goal Nurse scored.
This guy needs a change of scenery, he thinks he’s a leader and he is not. I don’t think it would be a bad idea to put Holl on the powerplay. Good shot,good reads,skates well,physical,takes good angles.
Time to put Holl on the point. He has a shot too.

 

[Stephen]

I still think you're overthinking Brodie. You make Nylander the handler instead of Marner and accomplish what you want. Rielly stays on and is simply a better offensive option on the regular.

Marner's entries, specifically his entry passes, have been lacking. Rarely seems to hit someone in stride or on the tape. I'd much rather see him low and Nylander high in the shooter spot while also taking care of entries.

You could also add a lot more rotation since all 4 fwds can play high and low comfortably

No no, Brodie is a complete add on as a defensive outlet. It could be another defenseman but my main curiosity would be to not have Rielly puck handling in transition or distributing the puck from the point. Or shooting it.

For a couple of games I noticed Rielly would keep pitching back and forth to Mitch on the PP on the left wing wall but seemed unable to distribute it low to Matthews on the right for a good look. It seems like maybe Rielly isn’t optimizing that pass across the body from his LHD position to the right wing and seems more comfortable going to Marner down the LW side. It’s a weird hiccup. Not sure if teams are defending that lane more aggressively.

 

[Mickey Marner]

I don't mind running two units, but the Tavares/Nylander one has been better and should be used more. Matthews and Marner play enough as is, 91&88 should be getting more opportunity to get full value from their salary.

 

[Jimmy Firecracker]

 

[Gallagbi]

Makes sense, but I'm interested to see where they play him. He's usually in Spezza or Marner's spot.

 

[cannucky]

I would be curious to see a PP1 without Rielly running the transition.

We saw it for most of last year and it worked better than it's been lately

 

[Coachcorner]

I f***in knew it. I coached and played it. Hard. Now its simmonds, tavares, rielly, marner, matthews. That's how it should BE. Thank you keefe, I came through.