How To Fix The Stars Penalty Kill: A Video Review
by Pat Iversen on Sep 7, 2010 7:30 AM CDT
in Dallas Stars Analysis
Email
PrintWith the season about a month away, I decided to sit down and try and figure out the Stars penalty killing woes. I won't go over the rankings, you've heard them before. Instead of pointing out exactly how bad the Stars were on the PK, I wanted to find out exactly WHY they were so pitiful. Much more constructive.
So I spent the weekend poring through the NHL.com video highlights, watching and documenting every goal the Stars allowed on the penalty kill last season. Yes, I know I'm a hockey nerd who has no college life. I'm okay with this.
The chart above is something I made yesterday after I got over my anger that Macs don't have Microsoft Paint on them. Each dot represents a goal the Stars allowed on the PK last season. Notice where the most accumulation of goals is: in or around the crease area. In fact 25 goals were allowed there, which adds up to 38% of the total PK goals given up.
Now, take another look at the chart, this time at the slots. If you combine the goals from the slot with the crease goals, you get 44 goals. That's 67% of the total goals allowed. One of the basic rules of penalty killing is that leaving the slot open leads to goals. Once the puck is passed into the slot, the defense must collapse into the middle, leaving the circles open for shots. You can see this in the diagram above. If the goals weren't coming from the slot or crease, they were coming from the circles.
So what does all of this tell us? Follow the jump for a video analysis (courtesy NHL.com)....
1. Patience is key
If there's anything to take from this chart, it's that the Stars penalty killers allowed the opposition too far into the offensive zone. You want to keep the shots limited to the blueline, and to do that, you have to hang tight and block the passing lanes. Staying patient is key.
However, the Stars seemed too jumpy at times on the PK last season. Instead of wading in between passing lanes to buy time, there were times when a player would jump out to try to force a turnover or break up a pass. This of course opened up passing lanes for the opposition, and allowed them to come closer and closer to the net. An example is this play against the New Jersey Devils:
Here, Loui Eriksson jumps out to try and steal a puck, and the Stars spend the rest of the play scrambling to catch up to passes until Travis Zajac puts the puck in the net.
Patience is a tough thing to teach, especially in such a fast-paced game. But being over-agressive on the penalty kill is something the Stars must work to correct this season.
2. Stop turning the puck over.
This might've been the most maddening thing for me while I was sifting through these goals. The Stars had the uncanny ability to give the puck to the opposing power play, whether it was at the blueline...
Or behind the net...
...the Stars just couldn't seem to be able to control the puck at times, and that's a death sentence for any penalty kill. Because turning the puck over results in a dangerous chain of events. It prevents you from your main goal, which is clearing the puck. Because the Stars struggled with turnovers, the PK unit was left on the ice for longer-than-usual amounts of time, allowing the opposition to slowly wear down the Stars and open up lanes to get to the net. And, as you can see from the videos, turnovers more often than not lead to chaotic scrambles to get back on defense.
3. Get the puck away from the crease.
As I detailed above, the majority of the goals against were given up in or around the crease. Frankly, that's inexcusable for any penalty kill. Let's go over a couple of specific examples:
Here, in the very first game of the season, we see the Stars fail to keep the puck from the crease. Neither Trevor Daley nor Nicklas Grossman react quickly enough to the pass from Dumont to Jason Arnott, and neither can bully him and the puck out of harm's way. Should Turco have made this save? Yes, but there shouldn't have even been any danger considering the Stars had two defenseman hacking away at one stick.
Next up:
Here, the Stars are overcommitted to one side of the ice. Wandell has fallen down, and Eriksson and Daley have left Grossman as the only defender in front of the net. This lets the Blackhawks swarm to the front of the net, and Patrick Kane deposits the puck in the net while the Stars try to fight their way into the crease. This kind of play was replayed over and over again as the season progressed.
And finally:
Here is a simple case of the Stars being unable to clear the puck from the front of the net at all. They do a lot right on this play: they collapse well, no one is out of position. But when it comes to bailing their goaltender out of danger, the Stars can't execute.
And really, that's what I think the Stars must do to be successful this year on the penalty kill: just execute. Don't get pulled out of position. Don't overcommit to one side of the ice. Control the puck, keep it from falling into the opponent's hands again. Slow down, stay patient. Clear the puck, get it out of the crease. Be more physical around the net.
All of these are simply basic rules of penalty killing, and the Stars could never manage to execute all of them properly last season. If they can work cohesively as a group to execute every single one of those areas, they will be better off for it.
We'll just have to wait and see.
30 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
Thanks Pat
Can’t wait to get home to be able to actually view the video highlights;p
One question with the shot chart, I notice the home (left) side of the ice seems to have a much prettier picture. Seems strange though… at home I could grok us not giving up as may horrible chances with the closer bench, but on the road, wouldn’t our 2nd periods have really torn us apart? Since we were worse on the road anyway…
Does make sense though, At home we were better, and we spent 2/3rds of the game with happiness and a close bench. On the road, we sucked, and spent 2/3rds of the game with the closer bench, but we sucked so bad…
I would be intrigued to see the home PK scoring chart… I bet a significant portion of the goals would disappear…
I say, just duplicate what we were doing on the home side of the ice. There, no more giving away the crease for the entire PK.
That's a good point...
I’ll put together the home/road PK chart later today, probably by noonish, and update the post with it.
DefendingBigD: A Dallas Stars Blog
The Maneater: The Mizzou Student Newspaper I cover women's soccer and other sportsy stuff.
They call me.......Flat-Bill-Crooked-Hat-Earring-Bad-Beard.
Here's the home PK goals for ya. I'll post the road in a bit.
DefendingBigD: A Dallas Stars Blog
The Maneater: The Mizzou Student Newspaper I cover women's soccer and other sportsy stuff.
They call me.......Flat-Bill-Crooked-Hat-Earring-Bad-Beard.
Some of these clips were painful to watch...
Very painful actually.. But still great breakdown of the PK here!
Are you sure you’re new to the sport? ;)
Defending Big D: A Dallas Stars blog on SBN: easy to use, free to join.
@GameTimeArt: Offending and/or boring sports fans one tweet at a time!
Great job with this. Love the video examples.
I was wondering what your conclusions were in regard to personnel. Did you notice any certain players that were consistently part of the problem? I would ask the inverse question as well, but I doubt that all of the successful penalty kills are available for watching, though you never know, I guess.
by Past A Diving Michael Young on Sep 7, 2010 10:42 AM CDT reply actions
Yeah that makes it tough
To show good examples. As you said, a successful penalty kill doesn’t make the cut on the highlight reels, even though the NHL does a fantastic job of making extended highlights available.
by Brad Gardner on Sep 7, 2010 10:53 AM CDT up reply actions
Right
But we do have that list you sent me, brad, with the players on the ice for each goal. I’ll post it after I finish this psych test.
DefendingBigD: A Dallas Stars Blog
The Maneater: The Mizzou Student Newspaper I cover women's soccer and other sportsy stuff.
They call me.......Flat-Bill-Crooked-Hat-Earring-Bad-Beard.
by Pat Iversen on Sep 7, 2010 10:59 AM CDT via mobile up reply actions
It's not very conclusive.
You can always hit up NHL.com
And see that Robidas was on the ice for 37 pp goals against…but there’s not much of a conclusion to be drawn because he’s ALWAYS out there on the PK. Etc.
by Brad Gardner on Sep 7, 2010 11:16 AM CDT up reply actions
Not talking to you specifically, Pat
Just anyone asking about personnel groupings on the PK.
The personnel on the PK is just such a small group that it’s hard to come to any conclusion other than the scheme, discipline, and coaching.
by Brad Gardner on Sep 7, 2010 11:17 AM CDT up reply actions
he is
and I dont think he should be. Maybe if we saved him from the PK he’d wear down less? Certainly we dont have alot of options back there, but IMO he’s actually one of the worst offenders as far as making mistakes on the PK. He is simply not a good positional dman and the pk requires dmen of that type. Fistric should get alot more PK time this season. He is the type of player who should handle it well.
I think Fistric will.
After last season, the staff has to trust him to the point to put him out there, right?
DefendingBigD: A Dallas Stars Blog
The Maneater: The Mizzou Student Newspaper I cover women's soccer and other sportsy stuff.
They call me.......Flat-Bill-Crooked-Hat-Earring-Bad-Beard.
Right.
And I understand that certain players’ counting numbers will look bad when they’re on the PK a lot. I was wondering if Pat saw any problems related to personnel that kept popping up. e.g. Wandell falls down an awful lot, Skrastins has a problem with clearing pucks, etc.
Also, I wonder if there are certain combinations of players that don’t play well together.
by Past A Diving Michael Young on Sep 7, 2010 3:36 PM CDT up reply actions
Nah, I didn't see any glaring individual trends.
The unit as a whole made the same mistakes over and over again. The only thing I can think of off the top of my head is Grossman needing to be more physical in front of the net, but other than that there weren’t too many players making the same mistakes. I’ll go over it again tonight to make sure, though.
DefendingBigD: A Dallas Stars Blog
The Maneater: The Mizzou Student Newspaper I cover women's soccer and other sportsy stuff.
They call me.......Flat-Bill-Crooked-Hat-Earring-Bad-Beard.
the pk needs to be much much better
I agree with the first problem you mentioned although I dont think that Eriksson was the culprit there. He was aggressive very far from his net and I think thats the better area to be aggressive. To me the main error on that sequence is made by Robidas. He chases the puck a bit, then briefly engages Parise and then lets him sneak behind so once the puck gets tight its basically a 2 on 1. He should not be chasing the play out that far on the PK, but IMO he tends to do that alot, and he is certainly not alone in that.
Another big problem that seems to happen alot is almost exactly the opposite. Guys standing right in front of the net, in good position perhaps, but doing the wrong thing, which is usually nothing.
That's true.
And it’s usually why there’s so much scrambling inside the crease. They’re too slow to react to action in front of the net because they’re busy just standing, watching the play unfold.
DefendingBigD: A Dallas Stars Blog
The Maneater: The Mizzou Student Newspaper I cover women's soccer and other sportsy stuff.
They call me.......Flat-Bill-Crooked-Hat-Earring-Bad-Beard.
And you're right on that play, I didn't even notice Robidas.
He does a lot of standing around on that play as well.
DefendingBigD: A Dallas Stars Blog
The Maneater: The Mizzou Student Newspaper I cover women's soccer and other sportsy stuff.
They call me.......Flat-Bill-Crooked-Hat-Earring-Bad-Beard.
to me
these issues make it tougher to pinpoint how to fix this thing. Is it mostly personnel? We dont seem to have alot of defensemen who are well suited for the PK. Is it because they are poorly prepared, or do they just not have the right instincts? Players on the PK often look confused back there. So I don’t know. What I do know is that if the PK is that bad again the team will really suck, unless Lethonen steps up huge.
All of which
Points to needing a big, mean body to clear the front of the net. Of course, everyone in the league wants one of those.
Can’t we just hire a Samoan goaltender to fill the net?
Well done post
Very well thought out and illustrated post. Keep up the good work.
If you have the time or desire I’d like for you to try and review how many even strength goals against were the direct cause of blind (behind the back etc) passes into the slot in the offensive zone. I can’t tell you how many times I saw Brenden pull that and it would drive me about as crazy as watching the PK unit not clear the puck when they had full control.
Thanks again!
Thanks for the kind words!
I’m glad everyone enjoyed the post.
Now as to what you’re asking for….that’s a LOT of videos to go through. haha. I don’t know if I can do that. But we’ll see, I tend to have more free time than I expect up here.
DefendingBigD: A Dallas Stars Blog
The Maneater: The Mizzou Student Newspaper I cover women's soccer and other sportsy stuff.
They call me.......Flat-Bill-Crooked-Hat-Earring-Bad-Beard.
Excellent post, Pat.
That’s some real dedication to your art. I could never put together something like this. Unfortunately, this tells the ugly truth that our PK fails at life.
But you know what they say: If at first you don’t succeed, keep on sucking until you do.
Here's to all us girls who love hockey...and the men who play it.
by Brad_Richards_Rocks on Sep 7, 2010 4:57 PM CDT reply actions
Yeah that would be a lot of tape to go through but I would wager that over half of even strength GAA came from those blind passes along the boards into the slot that immediately went the other way.
Matter of fact, I’d go a step further and add that kind of no-brain turnovers would make the best D in the league look pretty bad. Maybe not give up as many goals but would definately have the blueline chasing more often than not.
Exactly.
Is our blue-line really as bad as they seem, or does the entire team just have major mental lapses often? It’s an interesting question. Is it lack of talent, or is it just a lot of brain meltdowns?
DefendingBigD: A Dallas Stars Blog
The Maneater: The Mizzou Student Newspaper I cover women's soccer and other sportsy stuff.
They call me.......Flat-Bill-Crooked-Hat-Earring-Bad-Beard.
Great minds think alike
I have to say it is a combination of mental errors( which don’t get me wrong they are a young squad so it’s going to happen) and lack of physicality in clearing the crease.
But that’s a great question of if they are as bad as they seem or if the rest of the team is hanging them out to dry which is exposing the weaknesses more than normally would be.
Well keep in mind
how many times last year Luddy would go on and on in the intermission reports about how the forwards weren’t backchecking with any interest or vigor at all. That DEFINITELY plays a part in the defensive woes.
DefendingBigD: A Dallas Stars Blog
The Maneater: The Mizzou Student Newspaper I cover women's soccer and other sportsy stuff.
They call me.......Flat-Bill-Crooked-Hat-Earring-Bad-Beard.
IMHO
I agree with you guys on the forwards part in this D problem in big D. I’ve thought that since the early part of last season. Personally, I watched 77 of the 82 games last year (Well I’d watch most of each game until I couldn’t stomach it anymore and then I’d hit FFWD on my DVR to see if the Stars would tie it up again). It wasn’t just on the PK but the whole game seemed to be full of fundamental mistakes. That being said, it seemed to me like a lot of the mistakes originated with forwards more often then not, with maybe the lone exception of Niskanen (who was a treasure trove of mental lapses all over the ice). There’s no doubting that the d had it’s share of mistakes from time to time but I didn’t think it seemed like they were the bigger problem. When I was cursing someone’s name it usually wound up being the name of a forward that was either missing an assignment, out of position when defending around the net in their own zone, or giving away possession with a bad pass. Even looking at the examples here (well done by the way Pat!) I could say that many of those breakdowns even on the PK were contributed in large part by forwards and not mainly the dmen. Eriksson over-pursuing in clip 1. Sutherby phoning it in and missing the play on the puck at the blue line early in clip 2. Morrow missing a chance (albeit a small one) to clear past the defender in clip 3. Petersen having momentary control and just chipping it down instead of trying to keep it away from the opposing preds and then Turks missing the trickling save opportunity all in Clip 4. Lastly, and I’ll admit this one is a bit of a stretch, but where was Neal going at the end of that last clip? Could he maybe have collapsed down farther and taken away that lane instead of moving up ice looking for the outlet pass? Don’t get me wrong, I’m in no way implying that the outcomes of these plays were entirely the fault of the forwards but it does give credence to my point. I’ve seen a lot of people on the various boards crucifying the defense this off-season and talking about storming the AAC with torches and pitchforks demanding the signing of a bunch of new dmen but I’ll be honest I just don’t see that as the main problem. I saw a lot of young forwards missing assignments, a veteran forward or two not skating hard to the puck (gasp!), some mistakes on d (again mainly by #5) but no more than what’s normally going to happen (except in Nisky’s case), and a goalie (Turks, who I love) playing deep in his crease way too often, lacking confidence, and missing a few shots he would have stopped a few years back. And let’s not forget a big reason we lost a ton of those early games in the season… … …the shootout. Additionally, a lot of people have been scratching their heads at the moves last year and this off-season but when I see Joe making moves for some veteran right handed forwards on the cheap, and bringing in the potential for more stable goaltending in Lehtonen, not to mention a possible future franchise defining goalie, and I see a guy that’s making some sense. Sure, it’d be great to get a solid great D guy to shore up the glut of young inexperienced talent but that’s probably not feasible until we get this dang team sold. I don’t know if Joe is seeing the same thing that I’m seeing and I could be completely wrong but that’s what I saw last year. Granted a lot of that confusion may have a lot to do with learning an entirely new system which was also Joe’s idea when bringing in Crawford but that’s a moot point now. As a result of all this talk I’ve seen a lot people saying that we’re going to have just as much trouble this year but I honestly think we’ve gotten SOME of the problems fixed in signing Lehtonen (if he stays healthy), changing the mood with the leadership in the locker room (yeah I went there), and giving a chance for some of these young guys to mature and figure out the new system. Now just send Nisky down to the minors for a year to get his head straight and get this team ownership thing ironed out and I think we’ll be in really good shape. Then again, maybe I have no idea what I’m talking about.
No, no I think you're dead on.
We rail on the Defense a ton, but you’re so right in that a lot of the problems wouldn’t be there if the forwards consistently backchecked and kept mistakes to a minimum. The defense is young and inexperienced, we all know that. But it’s hard for them to grow or to look even halfway decent when they’re getting absolutely no help from the forwards and goaltending.
And you may have hit the nail on the head with the signings. Can’t afford a high-priced free-agent? Fine, doesn’t mean Joe can’t improve the defensive mentality of the forwards by signing Adam Burish.
It’s like I said all along….maybe we don’t need an overhaul to fix this thing. Just tweaks. Tweaks in players, and tweaks in mindsets.
DefendingBigD: A Dallas Stars Blog
The Maneater: The Mizzou Student Newspaper I cover women's soccer and other sportsy stuff.
They call me.......Flat-Bill-Crooked-Hat-Earring-Bad-Beard.
Finally!
It’s great to discuss this with people that are actually breaking down the whole team’s issues and not just assuming that if we have defense problems that it must be all the defensmen’s fault. I was beginning to think I was the only one noticing the forward problem. It’ll be interesting to see how this all shakes out this coming season.
Thanks for all the hard work you guys put into this site.
Great job Pat
I need to go back to college to free up some time. :)
Seriously though, I think we may all be pleasantly surprised this season. I’ve just got a good feeling that, with a year under their belt, the PK and the whole team for that matter will be ready for their assignments and have a better grasp of the system.
No matter what the personnel, I can see this team jelling quite nicely. Of course, there will be instances where the Stars are out manned talent-wise – but if little things take hold and a few certain D men toughen up – it can only get better.
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recent FanPosts
In Association With
Latest Puck Daddy - NHL from Yahoo! Sports
- Saturday’s Three Stars: Reimer, Vokoun post shutouts; St. Louis nets hat trick
- Fight Video: Ilya Kovalchuk KOs Flyers’ Brayden Schenn with nasty right hook
- Penguins’ Brooks Orpik launches Daniel Paille with massive hit (Video)
- Penguins, Bruins face their challenges in Eastern Conference showdown
- Olli Jokinen’s slump-buster is a Big Mac meal from McDonalds (Video)
Certain photos copyright © 2012 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
