Fifth Avenue Forum

And say no to Harkins after what we saw earlier in the year.

Any reason to believe Harkins couldn't bring more to the table than Nieto?

Yes

down to 25th in PP % and only 1 PP goal in 6 games

something needs to change. Either the units or the coaching staff

The probably only average like... 1 PP chance a game though

Yeah getting power plays would be a good start.

They also haven't been able to get set up the last 2 games due to boneheaded plays. Maybe start by playing a little bit smarter?

ok, but what are realistic options

huh was surprised to see we have the second least amount of PPs


that said, PP% is a rate stat, so it’s not like more chances = more PP success necessarily. I guess you could argue it’s a small sample size but it’s been failing the eye test too

Sometimes it takes a PP or two to get lubed up or make adjustments

One of you stat nerds go pull PP% by instance (i.e. 1st of game, 2nd of game, etc)

I'd give the setup with both 65 and 58 another try but maybe I'm just desperate.

I don't have stats to back it up, but the eye test tells me that Letang is terrific at keeping pucks in at the blue line and right now it seems that opponents get way too many too easy clears.

Sometimes it takes a PP or two to get lubed up or make adjustments

One of you stat nerds go pull PP% by instance (i.e. 1st of game, 2nd of game, etc)

that’s an interesting notion. I personally don’t think # of power plays would cause the % to go up but I’d be curious to see if it’s correlated at all

there's 0 correlation between number of power plays and power play percentage, so I'd guess the number of power plays in a particular game doesn't affect the rate at all



this is data from all teams over the last 10 seasons

here it is with the current season excluded since the PPOs are outliers

There is a correlation with more PPs leading to more goals though

we are more in control of the efficiency of the PP than the number of PP opportunities we get


you can’t really change your scheme to try to draw more penalties. That’s a completely random variable. You can, however, change up what you’re doing on the PP to try to get more success out of it

Aside from a few guys, the forwards as a whole aren't playing great, which is certainly leading to less power plays for.

The bottom 6 scoring has picked up a little, and it's won them a few games. But they still need to draw more penalties.

I don't know what is to be done about Rackell's slump.. just let him shoot his way out of it, I suppose.. but we're coming up on a quarter of the season and the dude has no goals. That's a huge concern IMO.

I don't know what is to be done about Rackell's slump.. just let him shoot his way out of it, I suppose.. but we're coming up on a quarter of the season and the dude has no goals. That's a huge concern IMO.

no need to do anything about Rakell. he'll get one eventually. it's not like he's not getting chances. a few seasons ago, it was Rusty who couldn't score but once he did, he went on a tear.

I'd give the setup with both 65 and 58 another try but maybe I'm just desperate.

I’ve been saying that since the beginning of the season. I’d like to see Letang in the Kessel role

I like the idea of the goalies getting a more even share until Jarry can find some consistency, if Ned can play even half as well as he did last night.

I don't know what is to be done about Rackell's slump.. just let him shoot his way out of it, I suppose.. but we're coming up on a quarter of the season and the dude has no goals. That's a huge concern IMO.

no need to do anything about Rakell. he'll get one eventually. it's not like he's not getting chances. a few seasons ago, it was Rusty who couldn't score but once he did, he went on a tear.

Agreed. Based on his career shooting percentage he should be at about 5 goals right now, so it's not like we're in that big of a hole.

I'd give the setup with both 65 and 58 another try but maybe I'm just desperate.

I’ve been saying that since the beginning of the season. I’d like to see Letang in the Kessel role

Agreed! Setup the umbrella with Tanger, EK, and Malkin. Sid and whomever can clean up garbage. Simplify as much as possible.

Umbrella with two RHS up high means that Malkin's misses aren't likely to be kept in...

Maybe. If you've got Kris on the left, which I assume you'd want, giving him more of a "trigger" direction, he's still got the ability to make those short burst plays. Depends how often he creeps in I suppose. Big difference for those wanting to put him in the Kessel role, Phil was an equal threat to shoot OR pass. I'd really only want Letang focusing on the former.

Nah, I'd want the guy with the better shot in the interior. So, Karlsson on the left. Let the keep-in specialist just own the right side. It's not going to be a secret that Letang isn't going to shoot on this power play. I think it's a waste of puck carrier. It means that you simply cannot gain the zone with PP2 and PP2 is likely to only come out after 90 seconds of clears. So, I don't think it's a good idea for either unit...especially given that some of yous just want a firing squad umbrella. I'd go so far as to say that you might want to start sniffing around for a legit second-tier shooting threat because we're just not really equipped to make that work consistently in my opinion...

It’s also more frustration that this type of group can’t figure it out. What they’re doing now isn’t working so trying something different should be an option. They could also make Malkin the trigger man like Lemeiux used to be and swing Crosby to that Kessel side if you’re worried about keep ins.