Penguins Power Play Needs Overhaul

As you will see in detail below, detailed by pictures, Penguins have had a hard time setting up successful pressure in the offensive zone due to poor design by the coaches and equally ineffective execution of what they are being asked to do.


Last night against Ottawa in this first frame, you will see Kris Letang in the defensive zone on his forehand at the faceoff dot against 1-man forecheck on the PK passing the puck up the ice to Sidney Crosby.

In this next photo, you will see Crosby accept the pass at center red-line, in a position that leaves him very little option but to pass the puck on his forehand across the ice. Now what I want you to notice here are the other players on the ice for the Penguins. Malkin is standing still at the far blue line, Kunitz is cutting across the blue line towards Malkin. What you can't see in this picture is Letang skating up the ice and Neal at the bottom along the LW boards.

In the next photo, Neal gets the pass, Malkin is still standing at the blue line, Kunitz is way too close to Malkin and in no position to take a pass, Crosby is at the red line ready to skate up ice and Letang has shifted to more of the center of the ice and still behind the center red.  Look at the positioning for Ottawa, Neal has one man in front of his at the blue line, another defensemen is inside the blue line, his legs are visible under the Penguins logo, a forward for Sens is between Kunitz and Crosby, and a fourth is out of view in the defensive zone.

We skate a little forward with Neal on the below picture. The Sens have a traditional box setup, where two forwards are taking the wide wall positions and the two defensemen are positioned inside the two at the top of the circles. For the Penguins, Neal has no option but to skate the puck into the zone as you'll see, Malkin is still standing at the blue line. Kunitz is too close to Malkin, his back turned, a defender covering. Crosby is guiding into the center of the ice and Letang is providing support behind Neal... remember, he started this breakout in the defensive faceoff dot.

The next frame looks the same for Neal, Malkin is still at the blue line and the puck is in the zone. Kunitz still finishing his angle into the zone, Crosby gliding, and Letang providing support behind.

Skip a frame, Neal gets by the Sens PK'er but look at that, no one in a position to receive a pass.... Sens have the angle, so Neal has no choice but to handle the puck and pass it around the boards and hope they win the battle for the puck along RW corner.

Here's Neal being forced to pass the puck around.

Here's a picture of the puck wrapping around to Malkin near the RW corner, Letang at top of LW circle, Crosby at top of RW circle, and Kunitz out of frame. Notice the Sens have already shifted their focus to the RW.

This frame shows Kunitz and Neal in the corner, Crosby below the RW faceoff dot. There's not much of an option here due to positioning to get Crosby the puck. The timing to win the puck needed to happen faster.. think that could have been an option if Malkin was in a moving position and not standing still? Remember, Malkin was ahead of Kunitz on the start of this play, yet Kunitz was first man in.

This frame shows Crosby with the puck below the goal line, Neal is peeling off the RW boards as free man and Kunitz is engaged. Malkin is out of the frame. All 4 Senators are engaged on the RW side of the ice, they have committed to an aggressive attack that leaves the WHOLE second half of the ice open for a backdoor shooter for a one-timer. If Malkin was reading the play and if they were coached to do it, Crosby should have an easy pass through the slot to Malkin down the wing for the 1-timer OR even Letang as RH shooter.

Instead Crosby has to twist around to his backhand and swing the puck along the LW boards to Letang. As you can see as the puck is reaching Letang, he's on his backhand.

The final frame shows Letang gets stripped of the puck on an easy stick check and the puck is cleared from the zone.

Two major problems on this single sequence
1) Malkin standing at blue line did not threaten the Senators PK
2) Malkin and Letang did not read the whole sheet of open ice for 1-timer.

The Penguins need to get all five men skating into the zone and they need to be way more creative with the opportunities given to them by the PK.