If you have ever seen the movie “Slap Shot,” you probably know that player/coach Reg Dunlop got pretty annoyed by people telling him how to run his team. In a bar, a man approached Dunlop and simply stated, “Get the power-play going, eh?” Reg’s response: “Yea, we’re working on it,” while looking away and paying attention to something else going on in the distance. To me, I feel like head coach Andy Murray has the same response to media and the St. Louis Blues fans. It doesn’t seem to me that Murray is putting an honest effort to improve the Blues’ power-play.
Every game has shown the same strategies; send in five forwards and have them shoot the puck in and set-up the same way. If Murray attempted a few new designs and tried a few different players on the power-play, there could be better results.
The statement could be made that the Blues are currently the number one team in power-play percentage, converting 13 goals on 41 opportunities. But most of these goals do not look like power-play goals; meaning that the five forwards on the ice are scoring on the rush or on a slide-the-puck-in-front type strategy that just so happens to be when the other team is down one player. The zone approach on the power-play this season is get the puck down low, then find a guy in front and force a pass across the crease or across to the far boards.
The Blues are making the right decision with putting Keith Tkachuk in front of the net. But the rest of the team just seems to be lost with the man advantage.
Lee Stempniak should not be on the point on the power-play. He struggles immensely with keeping the puck in the zone and never seems to be in the right position to take a good shot. Paul Kariya should always be along the boards, ready to rip a shot to the net for Tkachuk to deflect or knock in a rebound.
Another problem that the Blues are facing is having the point-men set up in the right spots. The solution to this problem: keep forwards off the points. Seeing the last-place power-play team a season ago was dreadful, but the point-men were not the only problem. Teams are starting to figure out now that the Blues’ forwards are not the best at keeping the puck in the zone when playing the points, so they are allowing the Blues to slide the puck back and forth while pressuring them at the points, hoping for a miscue. Defensemen are trained on the proper techniques involving how to position themselves to keep the puck in the zone during the power-play. Roman Polak and Mike Weaver have shown countless times that they are capable of keeping offensive chances going, and could be valuable assets to the man-advantage. Although the Blues’ defense may not be the best offensive force in the league, they will keep the play alive a lot better than two inexperienced forwards will.
The Blues also seem to be having trouble getting the puck into the zone and keeping it alive. First, players like Kariya or Andy McDonald try to skate it in, but these quick-handed forwards are being met by two hard-nosed defensemen at a time. This forces turnovers, thus resulting in defensive clears. A different setback ensues when players like Tkachuk or Backes try shooting the puck in, and then chase after it. Usually, the opponents just have one penalty-killer waiting down low, just to retrieve the puck and make yet another clear.
The only feasible way that this could be averted could be to have Tkachuk or Boyes send the puck in, and at the same time have the speedster Kariya fly into the zone about the same time the puck enters the zone. Sending in a Backes or Berglund from the other side could also help in the process, to get their big bodies in front of an attempted clear. This could also assist Kariya in puck retrieval, beginning a fight for the puck along the boards.
In today’s NHL, your power-play can win you a great deal of games. The Blues do not want to be left in the Central Division’s dust because they cannot convert on important opportunities.
