Powerplay

[JohnHockey1798]

What is the best system or way to be on the powerplay. I was always told to use the diamond but my team i am on know just plays the power play like a 4 on 4. Is the diamond the best or is there another way.

John

Toga!! Toga!!

[psfye]

there are a lot of ways to play a PP. The best way is to change every 2 or 3 possession so that the defense don't get use to it.
Personnaly I like to put two players in front of the net to create a lot of trafic with the other players taking hard low shots.
I think the most important thing is to be moving all the time to put the defense out of position. Most of the time the players are too static.
I believe PP have to take a big part in the practices.

[Falcons77]

I like the diamond as well, why? You can have one man in front of the net screening the goalie, the two men on the sides should be the ones that you try to feed the puck. Point is there to direct the flow and rip a slapper every once in a while. The key is to pass though the diamond and not around it. If the D is tight, you might not be able to pass through. What you want to happen is one D cover the crease, the other cover one side, the 3rd guy covers the top. Then you move the puck around untill something opens, then take the shot. One timers from the sides are the top scoring chances.

[SpeedDemon]

On most of the pro/semi teams I've played on, the diamond was employed. You either work a side until you draw the top-man out far enough to get a cross-ice pass ... or you develop a rotation system which is designed to free up a man down low.

[MDE3]

I tend to agree..cycling can take defensive patterns and break them down. A diamond works well if you have a talent mismatch of course with some extroadinary passers and snipers out there..but then almost anything works well when this is true.

When more balanced teams are playing each other, the diamond can be moved to a 2:1:1 where the two at the "top" rotate to a "slant" and you have one offensive player screening the goalie and another one in the slot up higher...this means the upper two on the power play are running the top defender ragged, and eventually he will break down..the guy in the slot looks for tips and high rebounds and the low man works on screens, tips and short rebounds..but both have to be covered so two defenders are fairly stationary putting most of the chase load on one player.

Then you can break back to the diamond quickly and look for some positional confusion to take advantage of.

[hockeynut]

The diamond with a player behind the net is good. When the guy behind the net gets the puck he will draw a lot of attention and one of your side guys can step to the middle and get a one timer.

[Superstar9]

well said Billy... nice call

Street

[Falcons77]

Of course :) Hey, let me know how your try-outs go....

[extremes55]

isn't that called an umbrella?

[John_S_Osborne]

Unless you get a high degree of movement into you diamond, your team is comfortable with that, and will not turn the puck over, I think it is really not the best way to go. The pass through the middle across to for a one timer is deadly, but remember that most penalty kills are looking to prevent that one pass from happening. That is the one thing that they will try to stop the most, and they will make the pass through the middle look inviting, only to make it become a turnover.

My overall thought of the powerplay is to exploit mini 2-on-1s in different locations, whether up top or down low. You can also position your players in order to move penalty killers away from the center of the floor, opening up for rebounds and shot lanes. If you play a diamond, you're focusing too much on trying to get through and into the middle, and the penalty kill is aggressively taking that away from you. If you move the attention elsewhere, say over towards the boards, you can get them away from the middle.

I know I'm being vague, and it's intentional. I have a system which works very well (49.3% on 64 PPs last season) based on these ideas which I'd like not to spoil totally. :)


- john