Claude Giroux seems to have taken notice that shorthanded goals are actually kind of a good thing. The rest of the league might want to take the shackles off their penalty-killing crews and let them try to track down a couple of their own -- opportunities are there.
Giroux leads the NHL with three shorties in 15 games, and has demonstrated how readily available scoring chances can be when you take advantage of the way players defend on the power play.
Which is to say, they don't.
At no other time is the opposing D so aggressive about holding their position onthe blueline, and forwards should be able to occasionally expose their flat-footedness over the course of a game and create offensively.
My dad taught me that when I was just a young pup, and he's a qualified source, given his 21 short-handed goals while in New York (seven were in one year, five in playoffs).
I called him to discuss this the other day, and he further explained: "you rarely have back-pressure when you're on a shorthanded rush. In most power play breakouts, two of the three forwards are often assigned starting points outside their blueline, so when their opponent has the puck, they lollygag back and wait for their teammates to come up with the puck so they can start trying to score again."
Teams can better expose this than they currently do.
Two of Giroux's three shorties have come as the support man, hustling up the ice to help his teammate with the puck, knowing that it's the only time in the game when the opposition won't be busting back their hardest to cover him.
There's nothing wrong with getting up the ice as long as both forwards don't get trapped deep, and that's a simple read and react situation -- don't go too deep if your partner already is.
The hesitancy displayed by so many penalty-killing units is somewhat bizarre, like giving their opponent more time and space when they don't have solid possession is an advantageous defensive strategy.
Half the time the defenseman are actually forwards these days, which means that you simply require a little anticipation and speed to exploit how these players defend when they think it's stat-padding time.
The more you play with the same teammates, the more you notice particular patterns in the way they clear the zone. This guy bombs slappers up the gut, that guy goes high off the glass, and that guy looks to make an outlet pass.
When you get the hunch your player is about be first to a loose puck in your zone,you can get the jump on things, because you have a decent idea where your teammate might move it, and your opponent doesn't.
Of course, there are the standard ways that a team gets shorthanded breakaways: slapshots into shin pads, bad bounces and fallen d-men. Every team gets those.
But it's the player who takes the early, anticipatory jump that causes problems for opponents.
Just think -- even if you fly the zone when your d-man gets possession, you force their d-man to back off the blueline, making it easier for your team to clear the zone.
If you leave early and the puck somehow gets knocked down -- as in, you get caught outside the zone when the play is still in it -- you might force your team to kill 5-on-3 for all of four seconds. You should be able to trust that your team can handle all of that, and the potential reward is well worth that risk.
Players who are great at reading how the play is about to unfold can drive a dagger into the heart of an opponent who thought they were the team sniffing out the next goal. The Flyers obviously recognize Giroux's gifts -- they just rewarded him with a lucrative three-year deal.
Other players need to know that they can cause havoc going the other way too, if they just lengthen the leash from their own net a little bit, and take a few more shots downfield.
No comments:
Post a Comment