mikey's Thread of Penguin Randomness

[MR25]

They could just get rid of Reirden permanently instead of bringing him back 6 years after firing him previously.

[Gaucho]

Canada is available.

[NTP66]

Ban Gaucho

[Morkle]

Is it Reirden's fault, or the players consistently just refusing to do what they're supposed to do, to look for highlight real passing goals?

I can't imagine any one of those guys could be punished or demoted from the PP.

[meow]

Is it Reirden's fault, or the players consistently just refusing to do what they're supposed to do

this is also reirden’s fault

[mikey]

Given Reirden's boob-erism, I'm thinking it's more him.

[Morkle]

Maybe, but Sullivan can't step in there and do something? I know nothing about it, but it feels like chicken or the egg. I think a new voice is needed, 100% and agree with you guys. I just don't know how coaching works there or who decides what, etc.

[mikey]

Well, when I coached power plays (which was most of my coaching career), it was my baby...I picked the personnel, I picked the formation, I picked the wrinkles, I picked the philosophy, and then I skated around the offensive zone up high and was talking to guys about timing and movement...

And that seems like a lot, but power plays are very schematic. So, I wanted things a particular way. That said, I also would bring guys together and get their feedback..."what do you see?" was always my favorite question to ask a player. And we incorporated some ideas. Every once in a while, I'd have a star player and I'd give him a lot of the rope and gave him some ideas about how to best weaponize his talent (a recent example is that I had a downhill shooter, so he'd walk off the wall and want to shoot...which I hate. If you have the puck, you're no longer the shooter in my opinion...so, we worked on him coming outside the zone, to gain speed, and create a speed differential on the high PK guy and worked around that. So, you can work to a player's super strength and create some jazz from that...but I really cared about my power plays, and I had really great power play percentage throughout the majority of my career if I do say so myself)...

[Morkle]

Interesting, thanks for that Mikey. I've always been curious how they do it at the high-level, because I've thought they've always been pass happy for as long as I remember, and get caught up liking the smell of their own farts too much for my liking.

I've always usually been enamored with a Philly type PP. Get it on net, crash for rebound.

[mikey]

Yeah, I get the "let's do it simple" angle...and sometimes that's the answer. Invariably - and I'm guilty of this myself - offensive systems (whether that's your breakout or your PP or whatever) just keep "expanding" and they eventually collapse on themselves (see: end of the Bylsma era).

For us right now, I don't think that we're at that point. I don't think what we're doing on the power play is complex. I just think that it's a little off in its formation and philosophy. It's just slightly off for a couple of aspects: The most obvious one is that we don't have a mid range shooter really and we're not amazing near the net as a result. The other less obvious one (and this has been slightly remedied by Rust replacing Rakell) is the lack of closing speed near the net and on OZ retrievals. For me, there's a difference between "speed" and "closing speed". I'd be worried about going all firing squad like some our suggesting because I'd be worried about the non-71 and non-65 shooters (and those are long range guys) and I'd be worried about getting pucks back after the shot/during the "crash". I don't think that's a fit for our personnel right now, but I could be wrong - I don't coach the Penguins haha

For what it's worth, it might be for the best that we're not doing anything the Philly way. Philly has had just about the league's worst power play for the last five years...just a smidge ahead of Anaheim and Montreal.

Fun fact: In the Crosby era, the Penguins lead the entire NHL in power play goals in both the regular season and the playoffs

[Gaucho]

well, they do look terrific on every other chance they get, they did on their first chance against Vegas, so I don't think it's a lost cause ... but when they look bad they really look very bad indeed, as in turnover machine bad

[nocera]

Yeah well when I coach the power play from my seat, I yell “SHOOOOOOOOT.” So, you know, we both coach.

[mikey]

You're not wrong.

[MalkinIsMyHomeboy]

I miss Hornqvist

[NTP66]

what the **** is going on

[meecrofilm]

Yikes, Rusty Cage would be a big loss right now.

[shoeshine boy]

aaaannndddddd it begins.

[mikey]

Were Rust and Rakell doing a standing 69 in practice...? What the hell happened to them...?

Well, let's give Puus Puus one last shot. And if Poulin wants to get a try, that's fine too...or Nylander, I suppose.

Pitlick at $1.1 mil isn't money I want to accrue right now, and I don't think he's what we need right now anyhow. I don't think he adds anything to this lineup.

[NTP66]

Source of the post Well, let's give Puus Puus one last shot. And if Poulin wants to get a try, that's fine too...

[meecrofilm]

Yahoo.

[mikey]

Yeah, all right...I was hoping to give someone else a look besides Harkins. But I was also hoping that Harkins would secretly be first-year Danton Heinen...he was a zilch earlier this year. Though he showed flashes in other places...so fine...

[Gaucho]

like I said, Rakell will never score again

[NTP66]

I was excited for this weekend's games, too. Now I just expect a bunch of losses.

[MR25]

Wonder if Rakell's injury is something shoulder-related and was affecting his ability to put pucks where he wanted to.

[King Colby]

What's a greater period of time... week-to-week or longer-term