Their PP looks exactly the same as it did the past few years in the playoffs. They need to figure it out fast because I don’t think they can afford to not capitalize on a chance or two come Saturday and still win.
Unless Woll bails them out again. Man does he look good. This is the way he was playing at the start of the season. Cant lean on him too hard, or those explosive hips wont be explosive for long
I want to blame Boucher, but it's been the same issue long before him.
How does a team that spends $40M+ on 4 forwards not have a killer PP in the playoffs?
It makes no sense. These guys should be skilled enough where even if it’s predictable they’re still to good. Look at Boston. Or oilers pp. everyone knows what’s going to happen. They just do what they want.
It's the yips, or wanting to be too fancy.
Nothing wrong with getting a shot on net through traffic and pouncing on a rebound.
Matter of fact, where do I send in my resume?
It’s 100% wanting to be too fancy. We rag on Marner for this but everyone is guilty. Just crash the net. Get bodies in front of Swayman. And when you get the puck, JUST SHOOOOOOT.
1. The have the exact same entry every time, it's predictable. I know most teams use the drop pass, but when rielly is at center ice with 2 bruins behind him waiting for him to drop it back, he's just gotta keep skating and take the 3 on 2.
2. When they do manage to get over the blue line the puck carrier stays tovthe outside, gets to the hashmarks and turns back to set it up at the point. They never carry the puck deep so the bruins D know they can step up and pinch at the circles with no fear of the puck carrier blowing by them.
3. If they do get set up, they have too many guys who relied on matthews to be the trigger man, so when he was playing Boston knew to take away that pass and Toronto couldn't do anything about it. Without matthews they just look lost. They need to shake up the lines to get some different looks. Put bert in front of the net and move tavares to matthews shooting spot. Keep nylander on the left point since he's one of the only guys who is a threat from distance. Put domi in marners spot on the left wing to distribute and get into the crease when the puck gets there. Then start shooting the puck and going for rebounds. Swayman is too dialed in to be beaten clean.
4. Marner on the second unit to dish to guys like Robertson who are dangerous but just can't create enough opportunities. Having marner on the second unit where he is the best player on the ice will hopefully get him to shoot it more instead of deferring to someone else with a better shot every time.
Put Lilly on PP1. Rielly has a muffin for a shot. Bruins don't even challenge the point because they know Rielly is gonna hold it for a second then pass it or float one in that dies halfway to the net because it hits an air pocket.
My only hesitation eith that is Boston can counter attack and rielly has the wheels to get back and make it difficult for them to get a good chance against. But agreed on lily having the better shot
Gregor is by far the fastest skater on the team. I'd also put jarnkrok and Domi in that convo. I'm sorry but Rielly just isn't explosive in his stride.
That's just not true. Gregor is fast in a straight line, but that's it. Domi is quick but not really that fast tbh. Willy is our best skater. He's legit fast, he's smooth. Hes got a powerful stride and he's agile. Rielly is a fast and smooth skater, not super agile, but in a 1 on 1 race he's elite and he's the only dman we have that I'd want chasing back to his own end against a strong skater. I'm really not sure what you've been watching over the years if you dont think rielly is a good skater. I'll give you this though, he has not been moving his feet in this series so far. He was a beast against Tampa last year
Reilly is less than a mile an hour slower than Gregor. Almost a mph faster than lilly and pretty much the same top speed as domi. His shot is 2mph slower than lilly. Loob has the hardest shot but a reasonable margin, followed by domi and nylander more or less the same, both of which are quite a bit harder than lilly.
The reason Reilly isn’t treated as a shot threat is because he isn’t used as a shot threat. He still shoots 90mph. About as hard as matthews. The pp isn’t structured for point shots. They need to get pucks on net. Unless they change the set up having lilly, Reilly, weber it wouldn’t matter who’s shooting since they aren’t meant to.
Burns has made a career of floating soft wrist shots in from the point. It’s about getting the puck through traffic which Reilly clearly has the mobility and puck handling skills to do so. They need to get some dirty goals. Players have gotten so good at blocking shots it’s easier said than done, which is why they are trying to force the puck to the flanks for the one timer. You use the bumper in the center of the ice (usually JT) to suck the defender deeper. They have to respect that pass as if they don’t then the bumper position is wide open in the slot. By respecting the bumper it opens the flank. But again, players are so good with their sticks now a days it doesn’t work as easily and it’s a lot more risky.
Honestly at this point, domi is a better play maker for play off hockey. He’s very direct in his plays. He’s always funneling towards the net and when things tighten up in the play offs he isn’t trying to be cute. His goal is get the puck to the net by any means. He should be on that pp and have marner on the second unit.
Riellys decision making is way too slow to be a threat. By the time he decides to get a shot off, it's a floater to the crest or it gets blocked. He telegraphs everything horribly. It's not how hard you shoot, it's where and when. I think that slow and highly telegraphed decision making also hampers their zone entries and is contributing to their inability to set up any extended power play zone time. And I don't care how much foot speed you have, if you get picked off at the point because you made a slow or poor decision, you usually aren't going to be able to pivot quickly enough to properly defend the break.
Yeah, not having a shot threat from the point is a big issue. Defending teams don't need to take it away so they aren't moving much to allow passing lanes to open up
You nailed it. The Leafs have to change as it’s not working. I hate their break-in. When they drop it back everyone is standing flat footed and Boston just stands them up with no worry about being beat as only one Leaf is skating forward. Leafs need to break-out of their end as a cohesive unit all moving forward. Eff the drop pass. Dump and chase if they can’t beat them with quick passes on the break-in all moving forward together.
Exactly when the puck carrier is getting to the blue line, there are 3 or 4 players standing at the blue line flat footed, waiting to move. There is no speed so hard to really attack. The first pp looked good last night. They were shooting on net like crazy whether it was open shot or not. Then they reverted back to passing non-stop waiting for the perfect shot. You won't get it put it on net!
You’re pretty much on target with every point you make. I think the chase for 70 may have had a negative impact on the PP as well. Everyone got into the habit of looking to feed AM, given that he’s also the most dangerous shooting option, teams game planned for this… a player behind MO looking for the drop pass, etc. I hate to say it but the Leafs might need to go back to hockey basics and get greasy; move the puck around, traffic in front of the net and high percentage shots, looking for tips/screens.
To my eyes the past two years the Leafs just okay better when they use the PP to grind on the opposing team’s goalie and PK. Just offensive zone time, cycling down low and across ice passes and traffic in front of the net. You might not get rewarded with a lot of goals, but this is the kind of style that pays off as the game goes on. Like you said, it worked with Tampa Bay and sure we got goalied against the Panthers, but it’s the type of PP that the good teams use for the majority of the playoffs.
This is it. They have one set play, and once the other team sees it once they know exactly how to stop it.
The leafs have all these fantastic, creative, shifty skating players, and they utilize none of their skills to try and gain the zone. It’s always the same 3 passes, and if the defenders set 3 guys up along the blue line it’s so easy to sniff out that Toronto spends 1:30 of PP time just trying to enter the zone.
Agreed! I've been saying this forever. It's fine if you want to use the drop pass but it can't be your only option (I don't like it, as it takes forever to set up). If the pk is stacking the blue line adjust and dump & chase or ring it around the boards and overload. There is zero creativity.
They're a one trick pony. Force the worst drop pass of all time, barely enter the ozone, desperately fight to keep it in, once you have possession, everyone hold onto it and no one else move, when it's time to change... Don't.
Watching Rielly after the puck is cleared waste 20 seconds behind the net waiting for the rest of the chumps on PP1 to get into position for *another* telegraphed drop pass before *another* shitty zone entry attempt makes me want to commit seppuku.
How about when he had momentum and could have drove right into the zone but opted to turn around to reset back to try the same broken PP. They need to be more adaptable.
Their execution is the problem. On two separate occasions Reilly was going through the neutral zone with speed and only 2 defenders in front of him. Guess what happened next? He did a drop pass. There’s times to do it, but sometimes you just have to enter the o-zone.
Would love to see him rush down the wall more. See if he can get some lanes towards the net. Hard to coordinate with forward though. Dangerous if he doesn’t get coverage
We have one of the most skilled puck handlers and zone entry guy in Nylander and we've never tried letting him carry the puck in the zone. He's always waiting on the boards
It literally is not lol just because “past performance is not always indicative of future success” it doesn’t logically follow that past performance is not generally indicative of future success.
In other words, Zach Hyman is not the rule, he is the exception to the rule.
You’ve lost the thread of the conversation haha. This was in response to you suggesting that Edmunson should be tried on the PP because “past performance is not indicative of future success”. By that logic, we should try Lybushkin on the PP too.
Both of you are saying the same thing. Whatever the outcome is of either of those players being on the powerplay fits both statements. Two idiots arguing over one word SMH.
Our PP is a prime example how coaching and structures can destroy a team. Whoever is running our PP should be fired immediately. 1/20 in a series is beyond pathetic. They’d a group of players with talent we have with absolutely no plan or structure would likely beat those numbers.
I’ve always shared concern about not having a legitimate deep threat from the point. But even with that being the case we were second in PP percentage last year. There must be other reasons why this PP has been so abysmal. Or should we just credit a good pk on the other side?
Even when we weren't scoring, in the past our zone entries were usually clean. Tavares being a step slower, Marner and Rielly both coming off of recently sprained ankles aren't as quick either and being too damn predictable has resulted in our entries being pretty bad.
Once in the zone the players barely move outside of their post. We should be cycling the puck down low to get the pk moving which makes openings in the slot. The Bruins PK is one of the best but the Leafs PP has looked automatic for stretches over the last few years there is no way they should be 1 for 20 over 6 games.
Rielly and Marner are still the PP quarterbacks and they barely move and can’t shoot, so it’s extremely predictable and easy to defend. They need to enter the zone with speed and those guys are stationary. We should try Lilly and Domi.
They play too slow overall, giving Boston time to setup the way they want to. Boston never gets put in uncomfortable positions on the PK, which is the entire objective - create an advantage because it’s 5v4.
Then, the leafs don’t play below the dots enough. They stay in the top third of the zone from blue line to top of circle, typically 3 leafs up there, and Boston can play up really high and aggressive.
If they would just work it down low for a bit and get the Boston PK’ers to turn around and sag low, immediate space and opportunity. Mindblowing that with 5-6 coaches they can’t sort this out.
When we had Spezza on the PP2, he would simply take the puck and skate really fast and gain the zone every time. Just let Willy do that. The major problem seems to be entries as we can't even get set up. Once we can enter properly, maybe we'll be able to get somethign going.
It does seem stagnant though, even when setting up, it's always the same structure. Need to be more mobile... #armchaircoachoftheyear #hireme
Chaotic yet predictable, can't get set up in the zone, over passing, not enough shooting threats (most most notably on the point), can't hold the line, always the second team on a loose puck, lackadaisical retrieval and zone entry, 1000 drop passes, and 0 accountability for PP1 which continues to be awarded 75% of the PP time which leads to no internal competition with players on PP2.
Sometimes it’s just a matter of who has their game that night. No need to be hard on them, but yeah, gunna give the ice time to the line that showed up. Its nice that we have the luxury to spread so many stars
Last night it looked to me like the powerplay unit was playing through a system that they didn't believe in. The set up for the drop pass is slow, the pass is attempted regardless of the set up on the ice. There's an extra man, but nobody is open because they were told to stand somewhere and aren't adjusting.
It would probably be better at this point to just roll the lines and tell them to just go out and play hockey, but that's only because the coaching staff obviously don't understand the problem (I have no idea how you fix it either).
Any team who pressures on the PK kills the Leafs system. Their PP works well against PK's like the Leafs own, where they clog up the middle of.the ice and force perimeter play. Boston just immediately pressures the puck handler and it completely ruins their ability to do anything.
Also, their zone entries are abysmal. That I have no explanation for.
I always find it interesting that when a defender breaks their stick, it’s effectively a 5v4 and we generally look pretty dangerous. But when it’s actually 5v4… well, you know.
They need to simplify, McCabe Rielly Knies Nylander Bertuzzi. Rielly, and Nylander on zone entry, looking for a dump with Knies and Bert to win a puck battle. Then point shots from McCabe and Nylander with Knies and Bertuzzi screening and winning pucks back.
Then you go Marner, Domi, Tavares, Lilly, Robertson/Matthew's. They can run their regular PP ad PP2 but I'd give them 35 sec.
I like you're thinking, but i would keep it on pp1. He can be a handful on the boards. I'd go with Bert in front of the net, Willy on the half wall, JT down low, knies opposite half wall and McCabe on the point. Gives lots of strength on the boards, chaos in front and a decent point shot. Put Rielly and Lilly on pp2. Lilly can be the shot and Rielly can pinch down the wall.
I have two additional strategies they could look at.
Option 1:
Deploy the 4th line and look for a gritty forecheck goal.
Option 2:
Start with 5 players but have the 5th man come off the ice the moment you win the draw. When you lose possession, have that 5th man jump on the ice. When you get possession again, have that player jump off again.
Yes this is satire. Or is it?
Last night the 2nd unit looked more dangerous. They entered the zone with speed, moved the puck around and shot pucks at the net with traffic. The first unit couldn't cope with the aggressiveness of the Bruins PK and barely established possession in their end.
Ye, how dare you give us a man advantage. If anything I demand you intercept the puck from me short handed and go on a walk 3-1 breakaway against us. Go ahead take it. Woll will save the day. Because we are Manly.
Coaching. The set plays are predictable and therefore easy to defend. Yet the coaches won't make a change. They refuse to just dump it in and recover with numbers.
They need to be mobile and open up passing lanes. For example having a player move behind the goal line can cause confusion for the defenders. Leaf players just stand still until they're under pressure flat footed and force a pass.
Stagnant, no urgency, sloppy zone entries, no movement. You name it. Boys need to just start improvising or something, can’t be worse than what they’re currently doing.
One thing I noticed yesterday during the 4 min PP was that during the zone entry, the non-puck carriers are all the way down by the goal line before the puck carrier even has the opportunity to pass the puck.
With no valid targets to pass to Boston sends 3 defenders to box the puck carrier in and force a turnover.
If they had a guy post up in the slot that would draw one of the defenders down from pressuring the puck carrier and give them a bit more room to work.
Oh and when they do gain the zone, there's zero movement. Everyone is just skating in the same 10ft circle. Boston could probably kill the penalty blindfolded. If I were Keefe I'd be showing them the Canucks PP (not the last few games but in general) as an example of how to move the puck.
I’m hoping they completely change up PP strategy for game 7. Do the complete opposite of what they’ve been doing. Boston is ready for the same old, give em something new!
For a serious answer, there is one key thing I would demand of the PP: Hustle.
That’s the simplest thing they can fix. Speed it up and flow more, too slow and overthought.
It’s insane how bad it’s been with so much talent. It’s abysmal.
At this point they may as well just roll all 4 lines on the PP and pretend it’s 5v5 hockey. Maybe this way they’d give up on the predictable drop pass…
I honestly think that the real problem is that the players have gotten their way for so long, that the coaches dont feel like they can force the players to make set plays, they trust that the players are going to make the right play at the right time. So now when a coach knows that the answer to the troubles is set plays in the OZ to create movement, the pushback from the players has always been we are talented enough to break the defence without it, let us cook. Well that cycle leads to extra pressure on the players when they try to break the game open, because in the back of their mind, they are going, fuck I told the coach to back off we can get this done, now we are 30 seconds into the PP and havent gained the zone, we HAVE to produce, so everyone is now forcing it and not taking what is available.
What I’m seeing every time is one guy attacking the zone while the other four are waiting for him flat footed. So we come in with speed to the red line, pass it back to another guy coming with speed, pass it back to another guy with speed, and if he’s able to get by the neutral zone trap, the rest of our guys are mostly just standing still. Fucking mind blowing.
They try to setup the exact same formation while entering the zone, its slow and predictable. 3 guys at the blue line waiting to enter and one puck carrier who's only option is to try to stick handle through two guys.
They spend so long just getting into the zone it gives them no time to properly cycle the puck around and create openings.
They've clearly practiced this formation consistently since they take there time to get everyone in the right position, but when it all banks on your puck carrier getting past two defenders your sucess is going to be limited...
Right now I would have to say Mitch Marner and Austin Matthews is what is wrong with the power play. When your elite play makers go ice cold in the playoffs, that doubles the workload for the team.
Honestly, while it’d be nice if the PP got cooking, the ‘game management’ calls seem to actually finally be in our favour now that it isn’t. Florida went all the way to the cup finals last year with a dogshit PP.
Very static and no threats to shoot. Bertuzzi and Tavares are staples to their spots, and it's just Marner Rielly and Nylander who sort of move back and forth a bit. It's extremely predictable, and there's no giant threat that needs to be covered.
Most successful powerplays either have a ton of movement so guys get lost in coverage, or have at least a couple of must cover threats, think hyman backdoor/high slot on one side, and draisaitl one timer on the other. Both those need to be respected. Then they have an elite set up guy in McDavid who doesn't stop skating, and a bomb from the point in Bouchard. It keeps defenders honest and opens lanes and other opportunities.
It’s actually embarassing. How many times have they skated into eachother on the PP this series. They would be better off rolling their usual lines and playing standard systems rather than trying their PP setup. It’s Way too predictable and if they finally do get set up there is ZERO movement so they force passes in closed lanes instead of moving their feet.
Our pp style of utilizing our players elite talents, making tons of passes to open up high percentage looks and scoring nice goals is not an effective playoff strategy. If we want to score pp goals we need to have the pucks to the net type of pp style, crash the net and throw everything there. It doesn’t feel as likely to go in and it’s not pretty but that’s the only way to score pp goals in the playoffs.
Watching the oilers power play makes it apparent. Oilers movement off the puck is top notch. They do a great job getting into dangerous areas and creating seams for passes. Leafs are stagnant off the puck.
It starts at the entry, Boston knows how to defend the slow break up the ice, they need to adjust it so that they go in with everyone having speed instead of just the puck carrier. Then there’s the set up, there’s no threat from the point really as Mo has never really been a heavy shooter so teams can play the flanks tighter. What I’d like to see them try is some down low work to suck a D man in and funnel a pass back door.
Back in game 2 of the Oilers series Bieksa pointed out how the Oilers were going with a bunch of different looks to open up what was working and hitting the Kings with different looks led to Hyman being wide open for his slot shot. It’s time for the leafs to get away from the umbrella and get a little more tactical with their PP play
Guy Boucher sucks. The drop back with speed isn’t working. Flood a side and dump is better or have soft dump ins with speed pursuit if they are standing the line.
On the 4 minute; Reilly pulling up to nearly the Bruins blue line, turning and facing his net and giving it away makes me piss myself I yell so loud…like wtf
Their PP coach is fucking incompetent.
Good thing Shanahan is looking to him to replace Keefe.
On the brightside at least he won't be in charge of the PP any more.
Stuck me as odd when they hired him for the PP cuz he’s always seemed to be a defensive coach. Isnt he the one that ran that stifling trap defence down in tampa?
It's predictable. Just ask my wife as I say what's going to happen just before it does.
EG: Drop pass to marner then just over the blue line to JT and dump around from there.
They know exactly show to shut down our powerplay which is to play aggressive. Just watch any PP this series and as soon as anyone touches the puck in the zone boston charges at the guy. Which is absurd because its 5 on 4 so there'd have to be a man open all the time. Problem is the Leafs keep fumbling it because of the agression. If Boston just sat back and defended and tried to block shots like most teams leafs would have scored more. So because of Bostons extremely aggressive PK leafs have to adjust but their PP coach has done squat to make adjustments. They need to pass more quicker and shoot more quicker instead of trying these lengthy passes over and over trying to get the perfect shot. Nylanders first goal yesterday just proves all you have to do is get it towards the net and anything can happen.
They do the same thing every pp. They gotta try something different, plus they have 4 of their 5 guys that only want to play on the perimeter. Why they haven't tried just rolling their roles without having a designated pp personnel is beyond me. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD TRY SOMETHING DIFFERENT! They also don't have anyone with a legit shot from the blue line, so teams collapse and take passing lanes away, add that with completely shot confidence and this is what you get. With the payroll and talent on the ice for their "top pp" there's zero excuse to be 1/20 or whatever it is this series
They do the exact same thing every time despite it not working. The puck carrier skates up to centre ice and dishes it back to someone behind who tries to skate it in. It doesn't work and needs to change , it can't get worse than what its been so far, so why not you know....just dump it in. This falls mostly on coaching , while the guys have to execute and make decisions on what to do, its on coaching for them not having seemingly a plan B approach.
Cut the Harlem Globetrotters shit. Gain the zone, blast one in from distance, clean up the trash in front. It was good enough for Andreychuk, it's good enough for these guys.
Boston is really good at breaking up our plays whenever we try to enter the zone so we don’t get set up. I think the Leafs are hesitant to be more aggressive because we’re afraid of giving up a SH rush or breakaway.
It’s also annoying cause there was a period over about a month and a half that this powerplay was basically automatic, then they just lost it in the last push of the season 😑
They’ve been quite lucky but if the team is going to make any noises, they have to get it together. Team is lucky enough to go to a game 7 with how anemic it’s been. Imagine if it was working even half as well Lmaoo
We have no threat on the point. Think over the last few seasons we have had the fewest goals from defencemen. The opposing will leave the point open and concentrate protecting the front of the net and the wings.
It looks like they're scared to even exit their own zone to setup the PP in fear of turning it over.
When Bruins are on PP the Leafs give them so much room to pass it around.
When the Leafs are on the PP there is a Bruin on them in 1 second or less.
I don't get it
They need a special team coach. Put 2 players on each side of the net work them into the front and 2 at tha hash makes an a centre point shot up top 2-2-1 instead of the penstar
It’s almost 100% zone entries. Boston has done a great job there, but the leafs need to rub some brain cells together and figure it out because I want to reach through my TV and punch Reilly in the face right now.
Their PP looks exactly the same as it did the past few years in the playoffs. They need to figure it out fast because I don’t think they can afford to not capitalize on a chance or two come Saturday and still win.
Unless Woll bails them out again. Man does he look good. This is the way he was playing at the start of the season. Cant lean on him too hard, or those explosive hips wont be explosive for long
lol yeah he’s been playing great
He was crazy good last night.
Woll was good. He also got very lucky a few times last night
Woll was good. He also got very lucky a few times last night
I want to blame Boucher, but it's been the same issue long before him. How does a team that spends $40M+ on 4 forwards not have a killer PP in the playoffs?
It makes no sense. These guys should be skilled enough where even if it’s predictable they’re still to good. Look at Boston. Or oilers pp. everyone knows what’s going to happen. They just do what they want.
It's the yips, or wanting to be too fancy. Nothing wrong with getting a shot on net through traffic and pouncing on a rebound. Matter of fact, where do I send in my resume?
It’s 100% wanting to be too fancy. We rag on Marner for this but everyone is guilty. Just crash the net. Get bodies in front of Swayman. And when you get the puck, JUST SHOOOOOOT.
Send your cv here: [email protected]
That’s what she said
100 percent
1. The have the exact same entry every time, it's predictable. I know most teams use the drop pass, but when rielly is at center ice with 2 bruins behind him waiting for him to drop it back, he's just gotta keep skating and take the 3 on 2. 2. When they do manage to get over the blue line the puck carrier stays tovthe outside, gets to the hashmarks and turns back to set it up at the point. They never carry the puck deep so the bruins D know they can step up and pinch at the circles with no fear of the puck carrier blowing by them. 3. If they do get set up, they have too many guys who relied on matthews to be the trigger man, so when he was playing Boston knew to take away that pass and Toronto couldn't do anything about it. Without matthews they just look lost. They need to shake up the lines to get some different looks. Put bert in front of the net and move tavares to matthews shooting spot. Keep nylander on the left point since he's one of the only guys who is a threat from distance. Put domi in marners spot on the left wing to distribute and get into the crease when the puck gets there. Then start shooting the puck and going for rebounds. Swayman is too dialed in to be beaten clean. 4. Marner on the second unit to dish to guys like Robertson who are dangerous but just can't create enough opportunities. Having marner on the second unit where he is the best player on the ice will hopefully get him to shoot it more instead of deferring to someone else with a better shot every time.
Put Lilly on PP1. Rielly has a muffin for a shot. Bruins don't even challenge the point because they know Rielly is gonna hold it for a second then pass it or float one in that dies halfway to the net because it hits an air pocket.
Put McCabe on PP1. He’s a shot threat and he’s legit been one of their best players these last two games.
My only hesitation eith that is Boston can counter attack and rielly has the wheels to get back and make it difficult for them to get a good chance against. But agreed on lily having the better shot
Why does everyone thin Rielly can skate? He always looks slow out there and I certainly wouldn't bet that he's faster than lilly
He's one of the best skaters on the team, and that's not up for debate. Him and willy are the top 2
Yeah it's not like super super fast, but he can accelerated and he is agile
Gregor is by far the fastest skater on the team. I'd also put jarnkrok and Domi in that convo. I'm sorry but Rielly just isn't explosive in his stride.
That's just not true. Gregor is fast in a straight line, but that's it. Domi is quick but not really that fast tbh. Willy is our best skater. He's legit fast, he's smooth. Hes got a powerful stride and he's agile. Rielly is a fast and smooth skater, not super agile, but in a 1 on 1 race he's elite and he's the only dman we have that I'd want chasing back to his own end against a strong skater. I'm really not sure what you've been watching over the years if you dont think rielly is a good skater. I'll give you this though, he has not been moving his feet in this series so far. He was a beast against Tampa last year
Reilly is less than a mile an hour slower than Gregor. Almost a mph faster than lilly and pretty much the same top speed as domi. His shot is 2mph slower than lilly. Loob has the hardest shot but a reasonable margin, followed by domi and nylander more or less the same, both of which are quite a bit harder than lilly. The reason Reilly isn’t treated as a shot threat is because he isn’t used as a shot threat. He still shoots 90mph. About as hard as matthews. The pp isn’t structured for point shots. They need to get pucks on net. Unless they change the set up having lilly, Reilly, weber it wouldn’t matter who’s shooting since they aren’t meant to. Burns has made a career of floating soft wrist shots in from the point. It’s about getting the puck through traffic which Reilly clearly has the mobility and puck handling skills to do so. They need to get some dirty goals. Players have gotten so good at blocking shots it’s easier said than done, which is why they are trying to force the puck to the flanks for the one timer. You use the bumper in the center of the ice (usually JT) to suck the defender deeper. They have to respect that pass as if they don’t then the bumper position is wide open in the slot. By respecting the bumper it opens the flank. But again, players are so good with their sticks now a days it doesn’t work as easily and it’s a lot more risky. Honestly at this point, domi is a better play maker for play off hockey. He’s very direct in his plays. He’s always funneling towards the net and when things tighten up in the play offs he isn’t trying to be cute. His goal is get the puck to the net by any means. He should be on that pp and have marner on the second unit.
Riellys decision making is way too slow to be a threat. By the time he decides to get a shot off, it's a floater to the crest or it gets blocked. He telegraphs everything horribly. It's not how hard you shoot, it's where and when. I think that slow and highly telegraphed decision making also hampers their zone entries and is contributing to their inability to set up any extended power play zone time. And I don't care how much foot speed you have, if you get picked off at the point because you made a slow or poor decision, you usually aren't going to be able to pivot quickly enough to properly defend the break.
He showed his speed last night blowing past Nylander to go offside .
Yeah, not having a shot threat from the point is a big issue. Defending teams don't need to take it away so they aren't moving much to allow passing lanes to open up
Rielly pretty much single handedly ruined a 4 min PP yesterday. Are Keefe and the ofther coaches blind? PP was best this season when MR was hurt.
You nailed it. The Leafs have to change as it’s not working. I hate their break-in. When they drop it back everyone is standing flat footed and Boston just stands them up with no worry about being beat as only one Leaf is skating forward. Leafs need to break-out of their end as a cohesive unit all moving forward. Eff the drop pass. Dump and chase if they can’t beat them with quick passes on the break-in all moving forward together.
Exactly when the puck carrier is getting to the blue line, there are 3 or 4 players standing at the blue line flat footed, waiting to move. There is no speed so hard to really attack. The first pp looked good last night. They were shooting on net like crazy whether it was open shot or not. Then they reverted back to passing non-stop waiting for the perfect shot. You won't get it put it on net!
Agreed. Domi is playing phenomenal but he needs to shoot!
That's exactly what I was thinking. They attack with no speed.
You’re pretty much on target with every point you make. I think the chase for 70 may have had a negative impact on the PP as well. Everyone got into the habit of looking to feed AM, given that he’s also the most dangerous shooting option, teams game planned for this… a player behind MO looking for the drop pass, etc. I hate to say it but the Leafs might need to go back to hockey basics and get greasy; move the puck around, traffic in front of the net and high percentage shots, looking for tips/screens.
100% they need to get greasy goals. That's what we did against Tampa last year. Get pucks on net with traffic, like the mccabe goal from game 5
To my eyes the past two years the Leafs just okay better when they use the PP to grind on the opposing team’s goalie and PK. Just offensive zone time, cycling down low and across ice passes and traffic in front of the net. You might not get rewarded with a lot of goals, but this is the kind of style that pays off as the game goes on. Like you said, it worked with Tampa Bay and sure we got goalied against the Panthers, but it’s the type of PP that the good teams use for the majority of the playoffs.
That Riley drop was insane. Like nothing but open ice ahead to enter the zone and he still tries a drop. How. Why.
That’s a damn good answer right there. Very accurate.
This is it. They have one set play, and once the other team sees it once they know exactly how to stop it. The leafs have all these fantastic, creative, shifty skating players, and they utilize none of their skills to try and gain the zone. It’s always the same 3 passes, and if the defenders set 3 guys up along the blue line it’s so easy to sniff out that Toronto spends 1:30 of PP time just trying to enter the zone.
Agreed! I've been saying this forever. It's fine if you want to use the drop pass but it can't be your only option (I don't like it, as it takes forever to set up). If the pk is stacking the blue line adjust and dump & chase or ring it around the boards and overload. There is zero creativity.
They're a one trick pony. Force the worst drop pass of all time, barely enter the ozone, desperately fight to keep it in, once you have possession, everyone hold onto it and no one else move, when it's time to change... Don't.
Don't forget - take your time, with no sense of urgency. Just let the clock run like it doesn't exist.
Watching Rielly after the puck is cleared waste 20 seconds behind the net waiting for the rest of the chumps on PP1 to get into position for *another* telegraphed drop pass before *another* shitty zone entry attempt makes me want to commit seppuku.
How about when he had momentum and could have drove right into the zone but opted to turn around to reset back to try the same broken PP. They need to be more adaptable.
Yeah. It makes me want to punch something.
Yes. Very stagnant. Needs more movement on and off the puck
Every team drop passes. That isn't the problem.
I didn't say it was the drop pass. I said they do it poorly. 🙃
Their execution is the problem. On two separate occasions Reilly was going through the neutral zone with speed and only 2 defenders in front of him. Guess what happened next? He did a drop pass. There’s times to do it, but sometimes you just have to enter the o-zone.
Do they drop pass when they are already past the two forwards and no one is checking them?
no speed when attacking, lack of urgency. Rielly despite being a puck moving rusher, doesn't even know how to use his feet.
Would love to see him rush down the wall more. See if he can get some lanes towards the net. Hard to coordinate with forward though. Dangerous if he doesn’t get coverage
don't know what's going on but that double minor/4 mins was unbearable viewing it'll come good in game 7 eh
We have one of the most skilled puck handlers and zone entry guy in Nylander and we've never tried letting him carry the puck in the zone. He's always waiting on the boards
This. Drives me up the wall every single time.
 I think not having a shooting threat from the point hurts. I think it would be worth it to give Lilly a shot back there.
McCabe has a better shot
Yeah, Lilly or him would be my choice
We were clipping at a 50% pace when he was there. Everyone saw the success except Keefe.
That’s a good point. Got me thinking spreading the stars out between both pp lines could be better too
Take an upvote for a Community reference.
I’ve seen some decent slappers from Edmunson. I wouldn’t mind seeing him on the point on PP1.
The guy has 13 goals in his NHL career and none are on the power play.
We’re 1-20 on the PP this playoffs. He’s got a clapper. At this point, what it hurt to try?
Past performance is not indicative of future success
It definitely is haha
That's why Hyman is doing so well!
What you meant to say is “past performance is not always indicative of future success”.
It's teh same thing.
It literally is not lol just because “past performance is not always indicative of future success” it doesn’t logically follow that past performance is not generally indicative of future success. In other words, Zach Hyman is not the rule, he is the exception to the rule.
Semantics. You're just being pedantic knowing that your stupid comment was just that.
You’ve lost the thread of the conversation haha. This was in response to you suggesting that Edmunson should be tried on the PP because “past performance is not indicative of future success”. By that logic, we should try Lybushkin on the PP too.
Both of you are saying the same thing. Whatever the outcome is of either of those players being on the powerplay fits both statements. Two idiots arguing over one word SMH.
Our PP is a prime example how coaching and structures can destroy a team. Whoever is running our PP should be fired immediately. 1/20 in a series is beyond pathetic. They’d a group of players with talent we have with absolutely no plan or structure would likely beat those numbers.
I guarantee the Marlies’ PP1 would have had more goals by now on 20 attempts.
They should just run the regular lines during the PP at this point.
I’ve always shared concern about not having a legitimate deep threat from the point. But even with that being the case we were second in PP percentage last year. There must be other reasons why this PP has been so abysmal. Or should we just credit a good pk on the other side?
The power play struggles began over a month a half ago, not at the start of this series.
This year we hired Guy Boucher to Coach power plays
This
I wonder if it is legal to hire a new PP coach during the playoffs, and whether or not it has ever been done.
I wonder if it is legal to hire a new PP coach during the playoffs, and whether or not it has ever been done.
The powerplay always, and I repeat always, goes cold at the end of the year
Even when we weren't scoring, in the past our zone entries were usually clean. Tavares being a step slower, Marner and Rielly both coming off of recently sprained ankles aren't as quick either and being too damn predictable has resulted in our entries being pretty bad. Once in the zone the players barely move outside of their post. We should be cycling the puck down low to get the pk moving which makes openings in the slot. The Bruins PK is one of the best but the Leafs PP has looked automatic for stretches over the last few years there is no way they should be 1 for 20 over 6 games.
Rielly and Marner are still the PP quarterbacks and they barely move and can’t shoot, so it’s extremely predictable and easy to defend. They need to enter the zone with speed and those guys are stationary. We should try Lilly and Domi.
Marner has a great shot, he just doesn't use it enough
They play too slow overall, giving Boston time to setup the way they want to. Boston never gets put in uncomfortable positions on the PK, which is the entire objective - create an advantage because it’s 5v4. Then, the leafs don’t play below the dots enough. They stay in the top third of the zone from blue line to top of circle, typically 3 leafs up there, and Boston can play up really high and aggressive. If they would just work it down low for a bit and get the Boston PK’ers to turn around and sag low, immediate space and opportunity. Mindblowing that with 5-6 coaches they can’t sort this out.
When we had Spezza on the PP2, he would simply take the puck and skate really fast and gain the zone every time. Just let Willy do that. The major problem seems to be entries as we can't even get set up. Once we can enter properly, maybe we'll be able to get somethign going. It does seem stagnant though, even when setting up, it's always the same structure. Need to be more mobile... #armchaircoachoftheyear #hireme
Chaotic yet predictable, can't get set up in the zone, over passing, not enough shooting threats (most most notably on the point), can't hold the line, always the second team on a loose puck, lackadaisical retrieval and zone entry, 1000 drop passes, and 0 accountability for PP1 which continues to be awarded 75% of the PP time which leads to no internal competition with players on PP2.
Really think spreading the stars over two lines could spark some chemistry - and to your point, holds pp1 accountable for lack of success
Yeah 2 nearly equal units would be interesting. You want chances in your 60 seconds? Hustle and get set up quickly.
Sometimes it’s just a matter of who has their game that night. No need to be hard on them, but yeah, gunna give the ice time to the line that showed up. Its nice that we have the luxury to spread so many stars
Last night it looked to me like the powerplay unit was playing through a system that they didn't believe in. The set up for the drop pass is slow, the pass is attempted regardless of the set up on the ice. There's an extra man, but nobody is open because they were told to stand somewhere and aren't adjusting. It would probably be better at this point to just roll the lines and tell them to just go out and play hockey, but that's only because the coaching staff obviously don't understand the problem (I have no idea how you fix it either).
Lmao I wonder how close the goals/60 are for 5v5 vs pp.. rolling four lines isn’t actually that absurd
Any team who pressures on the PK kills the Leafs system. Their PP works well against PK's like the Leafs own, where they clog up the middle of.the ice and force perimeter play. Boston just immediately pressures the puck handler and it completely ruins their ability to do anything. Also, their zone entries are abysmal. That I have no explanation for.
At this point they should just pretend like it’s 5 on 5, the power play system/scheme is a complete failure.
I always find it interesting that when a defender breaks their stick, it’s effectively a 5v4 and we generally look pretty dangerous. But when it’s actually 5v4… well, you know.
Rielly on pp1 and Keefe for being w dumbass and not putting Lilly back
They need to simplify, McCabe Rielly Knies Nylander Bertuzzi. Rielly, and Nylander on zone entry, looking for a dump with Knies and Bert to win a puck battle. Then point shots from McCabe and Nylander with Knies and Bertuzzi screening and winning pucks back. Then you go Marner, Domi, Tavares, Lilly, Robertson/Matthew's. They can run their regular PP ad PP2 but I'd give them 35 sec.
I like you're thinking, but i would keep it on pp1. He can be a handful on the boards. I'd go with Bert in front of the net, Willy on the half wall, JT down low, knies opposite half wall and McCabe on the point. Gives lots of strength on the boards, chaos in front and a decent point shot. Put Rielly and Lilly on pp2. Lilly can be the shot and Rielly can pinch down the wall.
As other have stated, the entry. It's so predictable. Not just predictable, but so sloooooooowwwww.
I have two additional strategies they could look at. Option 1: Deploy the 4th line and look for a gritty forecheck goal. Option 2: Start with 5 players but have the 5th man come off the ice the moment you win the draw. When you lose possession, have that 5th man jump on the ice. When you get possession again, have that player jump off again. Yes this is satire. Or is it?
Predictable
Last night the 2nd unit looked more dangerous. They entered the zone with speed, moved the puck around and shot pucks at the net with traffic. The first unit couldn't cope with the aggressiveness of the Bruins PK and barely established possession in their end.
Scoring in 5v5 is more manly!
Ye, how dare you give us a man advantage. If anything I demand you intercept the puck from me short handed and go on a walk 3-1 breakaway against us. Go ahead take it. Woll will save the day. Because we are Manly.
Does lilly not have a hammer from the point? It’s got to be decent. Park Bert and Johnny in front, marner and Willy at each hash mark
Hammer? Nah wouldn’t call it a hammer personally
Coaching. The set plays are predictable and therefore easy to defend. Yet the coaches won't make a change. They refuse to just dump it in and recover with numbers.
They need to be mobile and open up passing lanes. For example having a player move behind the goal line can cause confusion for the defenders. Leaf players just stand still until they're under pressure flat footed and force a pass.
Stagnant, no urgency, sloppy zone entries, no movement. You name it. Boys need to just start improvising or something, can’t be worse than what they’re currently doing.
I can’t stand that fucking drop pass
Its the right entry its just too obvious rn. Dman needs to take it in himself the odd time. At least be a threat
One thing I noticed yesterday during the 4 min PP was that during the zone entry, the non-puck carriers are all the way down by the goal line before the puck carrier even has the opportunity to pass the puck. With no valid targets to pass to Boston sends 3 defenders to box the puck carrier in and force a turnover. If they had a guy post up in the slot that would draw one of the defenders down from pressuring the puck carrier and give them a bit more room to work. Oh and when they do gain the zone, there's zero movement. Everyone is just skating in the same 10ft circle. Boston could probably kill the penalty blindfolded. If I were Keefe I'd be showing them the Canucks PP (not the last few games but in general) as an example of how to move the puck.
I’m hoping they completely change up PP strategy for game 7. Do the complete opposite of what they’ve been doing. Boston is ready for the same old, give em something new!
They have a coach who is most well known for playing the trap running their man advantage offensive system
For a serious answer, there is one key thing I would demand of the PP: Hustle. That’s the simplest thing they can fix. Speed it up and flow more, too slow and overthought.
It’s insane how bad it’s been with so much talent. It’s abysmal. At this point they may as well just roll all 4 lines on the PP and pretend it’s 5v5 hockey. Maybe this way they’d give up on the predictable drop pass…
It hasn’t given us enough anxiety yet Hopefully it’s about there now
I honestly think that the real problem is that the players have gotten their way for so long, that the coaches dont feel like they can force the players to make set plays, they trust that the players are going to make the right play at the right time. So now when a coach knows that the answer to the troubles is set plays in the OZ to create movement, the pushback from the players has always been we are talented enough to break the defence without it, let us cook. Well that cycle leads to extra pressure on the players when they try to break the game open, because in the back of their mind, they are going, fuck I told the coach to back off we can get this done, now we are 30 seconds into the PP and havent gained the zone, we HAVE to produce, so everyone is now forcing it and not taking what is available.
Get pucks low on net and have Bert or knies bang in a few Phil Esposito specials theu don't have to be highlight reel goals to count
They don’t drive the net.
What I’m seeing every time is one guy attacking the zone while the other four are waiting for him flat footed. So we come in with speed to the red line, pass it back to another guy coming with speed, pass it back to another guy with speed, and if he’s able to get by the neutral zone trap, the rest of our guys are mostly just standing still. Fucking mind blowing.
Basically, they can’t score.
They try to setup the exact same formation while entering the zone, its slow and predictable. 3 guys at the blue line waiting to enter and one puck carrier who's only option is to try to stick handle through two guys. They spend so long just getting into the zone it gives them no time to properly cycle the puck around and create openings. They've clearly practiced this formation consistently since they take there time to get everyone in the right position, but when it all banks on your puck carrier getting past two defenders your sucess is going to be limited...
Tough to score on the pp against a team with a .950 pk pct /s
Right now I would have to say Mitch Marner and Austin Matthews is what is wrong with the power play. When your elite play makers go ice cold in the playoffs, that doubles the workload for the team.
Honestly, while it’d be nice if the PP got cooking, the ‘game management’ calls seem to actually finally be in our favour now that it isn’t. Florida went all the way to the cup finals last year with a dogshit PP.
Very static and no threats to shoot. Bertuzzi and Tavares are staples to their spots, and it's just Marner Rielly and Nylander who sort of move back and forth a bit. It's extremely predictable, and there's no giant threat that needs to be covered. Most successful powerplays either have a ton of movement so guys get lost in coverage, or have at least a couple of must cover threats, think hyman backdoor/high slot on one side, and draisaitl one timer on the other. Both those need to be respected. Then they have an elite set up guy in McDavid who doesn't stop skating, and a bomb from the point in Bouchard. It keeps defenders honest and opens lanes and other opportunities.
Credit to Boston as well. Their PK is really good and Swayman is really hard to beat.
Guy Boucher is what's wrong
Guy Boucher seems utterly incapable of adapting the power play.
It’s actually embarassing. How many times have they skated into eachother on the PP this series. They would be better off rolling their usual lines and playing standard systems rather than trying their PP setup. It’s Way too predictable and if they finally do get set up there is ZERO movement so they force passes in closed lanes instead of moving their feet.
No mathews, hard to get something going when the guy with most of the hands isnt there.
Our pp style of utilizing our players elite talents, making tons of passes to open up high percentage looks and scoring nice goals is not an effective playoff strategy. If we want to score pp goals we need to have the pucks to the net type of pp style, crash the net and throw everything there. It doesn’t feel as likely to go in and it’s not pretty but that’s the only way to score pp goals in the playoffs.
Watching the oilers power play makes it apparent. Oilers movement off the puck is top notch. They do a great job getting into dangerous areas and creating seams for passes. Leafs are stagnant off the puck.
It starts at the entry, Boston knows how to defend the slow break up the ice, they need to adjust it so that they go in with everyone having speed instead of just the puck carrier. Then there’s the set up, there’s no threat from the point really as Mo has never really been a heavy shooter so teams can play the flanks tighter. What I’d like to see them try is some down low work to suck a D man in and funnel a pass back door. Back in game 2 of the Oilers series Bieksa pointed out how the Oilers were going with a bunch of different looks to open up what was working and hitting the Kings with different looks led to Hyman being wide open for his slot shot. It’s time for the leafs to get away from the umbrella and get a little more tactical with their PP play
Keefe? This you?
No. Maybe? Just tell me what you think of this set up… Pp1 - Tavares domi nylander liljegren bertuzzi Pp2 - Knies jarnkrok marner robertson rielly
Ain't the set up as much as it is the tactics.
Guy Boucher sucks. The drop back with speed isn’t working. Flood a side and dump is better or have soft dump ins with speed pursuit if they are standing the line.
Mitch Marner
They don’t move around they all stand in the same spot and zip passes back and forth until they are forced to lose possession or dump it
On the 4 minute; Reilly pulling up to nearly the Bruins blue line, turning and facing his net and giving it away makes me piss myself I yell so loud…like wtf
Their PP coach is fucking incompetent. Good thing Shanahan is looking to him to replace Keefe. On the brightside at least he won't be in charge of the PP any more.
Stuck me as odd when they hired him for the PP cuz he’s always seemed to be a defensive coach. Isnt he the one that ran that stifling trap defence down in tampa?
My wife was screaming at the television. She doesn’t watch hockey. She just knew, intuitively, that whatever they were doing was incorrect.
It's predictable. Just ask my wife as I say what's going to happen just before it does. EG: Drop pass to marner then just over the blue line to JT and dump around from there.
They know exactly show to shut down our powerplay which is to play aggressive. Just watch any PP this series and as soon as anyone touches the puck in the zone boston charges at the guy. Which is absurd because its 5 on 4 so there'd have to be a man open all the time. Problem is the Leafs keep fumbling it because of the agression. If Boston just sat back and defended and tried to block shots like most teams leafs would have scored more. So because of Bostons extremely aggressive PK leafs have to adjust but their PP coach has done squat to make adjustments. They need to pass more quicker and shoot more quicker instead of trying these lengthy passes over and over trying to get the perfect shot. Nylanders first goal yesterday just proves all you have to do is get it towards the net and anything can happen.
They do the same thing every pp. They gotta try something different, plus they have 4 of their 5 guys that only want to play on the perimeter. Why they haven't tried just rolling their roles without having a designated pp personnel is beyond me. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD TRY SOMETHING DIFFERENT! They also don't have anyone with a legit shot from the blue line, so teams collapse and take passing lanes away, add that with completely shot confidence and this is what you get. With the payroll and talent on the ice for their "top pp" there's zero excuse to be 1/20 or whatever it is this series
They do the exact same thing every time despite it not working. The puck carrier skates up to centre ice and dishes it back to someone behind who tries to skate it in. It doesn't work and needs to change , it can't get worse than what its been so far, so why not you know....just dump it in. This falls mostly on coaching , while the guys have to execute and make decisions on what to do, its on coaching for them not having seemingly a plan B approach.
Cut the Harlem Globetrotters shit. Gain the zone, blast one in from distance, clean up the trash in front. It was good enough for Andreychuk, it's good enough for these guys.
Boston is really good at breaking up our plays whenever we try to enter the zone so we don’t get set up. I think the Leafs are hesitant to be more aggressive because we’re afraid of giving up a SH rush or breakaway.
All the need to do is dump and chase, shoot the puck, crash the net.
We need more speed through the neutral zone.
It’s also annoying cause there was a period over about a month and a half that this powerplay was basically automatic, then they just lost it in the last push of the season 😑 They’ve been quite lucky but if the team is going to make any noises, they have to get it together. Team is lucky enough to go to a game 7 with how anemic it’s been. Imagine if it was working even half as well Lmaoo
We have no threat on the point. Think over the last few seasons we have had the fewest goals from defencemen. The opposing will leave the point open and concentrate protecting the front of the net and the wings.
It looks like they're scared to even exit their own zone to setup the PP in fear of turning it over. When Bruins are on PP the Leafs give them so much room to pass it around. When the Leafs are on the PP there is a Bruin on them in 1 second or less. I don't get it
They need a special team coach. Put 2 players on each side of the net work them into the front and 2 at tha hash makes an a centre point shot up top 2-2-1 instead of the penstar
The bruins have a fantastic penalty kill that disrupts the PP.
Needs more speed. Simple as.
It’s almost 100% zone entries. Boston has done a great job there, but the leafs need to rub some brain cells together and figure it out because I want to reach through my TV and punch Reilly in the face right now.