Go to Box: Feel Shame

Go to Box: Feel Shame

It is probably time for the Dallas Stars to take the funny anecdote from Slap Shot and make it an edict. Maybe, “go to box; get fined.” Or maybe “go to box; get benched.”

This team cannot afford to go short-handed as often as they do even though they are tied for 8th in the league with fewest number of times shorthanded (288 – compared to the worst at 342). When they go to the box, bad things happen. They are 27th in the league in power play goals against with 48.

Since the beginning of the 3-10-1 slide in January (I realize things are looking up right now), the Stars have been shorthanded 53 times which is actually better than the total season average – average being shorthanded 4.72 times, lately being 3.79 times per game.

But in those last 14 games the Stars have only managed a 75.5% penalty kill. That would be good, on season average, for dead last in the league.

More than just pure numbers and percentages however, the goals against the team have come at disadvantageous times. In those last 14 games, there have been 13 power play goals scored against them. 4 of those have been game winners. One was a game-tying goal. 3 were “insurance” goals to put the bad guys up by two.

One’s natural instinct would be to look at last night’s game in Detroit and say, 5 of 6 PK isn’t so bad, and it isn’t. One goal in a 4-1 win is easy to hide and it’s easy to forget that it came on the power play. But the thing to keep in mind is they have allowed one or more power play goals in 10 of their last 14 games and is indicative of their struggles of late on the kill.

Desperation

After last night’s win in Detroit, we heard the word, “desperate,” a lot. That probably goes to show the topic of conversation in the locker room. I would never tell anyone how to run a locker room or how to motivate their players but desperation can be exploited.

Granted, they were probably talking about scoring goals and to a lesser extent, clearing pucks from in front of the net but when it comes to killing penalties, desperation should be replaced with cold, calculated, methodical, positional hockey. I’m not sure the players or the coach have that in them.

Is it any coincidence that Dallas killed 5 of 6 with Adam Burish back in the line-up? Probably not. However, should we be excited at the prospect that the penalty kill may sky-rocket from 75.5% back up to their season average of 78%? Probably not.

Be Aggressive, B-E Aggressive

We know that if there’s one thing this team does not lack, it is aggressiveness. That needs to be applied to the penalty kill.

Without going too far into the details of killing penalties a couple of things to keep in mind:

Keep the passing to the outside.

Keep your feet moving.

Keep your stick down.

Close off the passing lanes.

Clear the crease.

I don’t believe we’re witnessing any real breakdown of fundamentals here but all too often we witness the forward who is totally unafraid to camp in the crease and is never made to pay for it. Too often we watch the penalty killers spinning around like bubble-hockey players and though the passing is to the outside one swift cross-ice pass moves crisply between killers for a heck of a one-timer or wrister with everyone, including the goalie, out of position.

This team suffers no abundance of flamingos; they are all willing to block shots from the point. My take is that they need to chase them out of position for such shots. Don’t sit back and wait for someone to pound a 90 mph frozen piece of rubber into your ankle. Take away the shot instead.

For example, what made Jere Lehtinen and Mike Modano such great penalty killers? How many times did you see them (other than perhaps the playoffs) two pad stack like pinball flippers? I think we’d have all fallen out of our chairs in a collective thumping heap had we seen it. They closed down passing lanes. They forced passing not just to the outside but to the absolute perimeter of the defensive zone. They pushed the points and half-boards to the absolute edges.

Who remembers Modano scoring shorthanded 5 on 3 against the Panthers? I do. Pursuit did it. Aggressiveness. And a confidence in the other penalty killers and his goalie.

When Marty Turco was in his prime, how often would a player find themselves parked in his crease? When they did, how often would they feel wood where they had no padding? I would never, ever suggest players do anything illegal – goodness, no. But maybe the Kari Lehtonen that showed some fight last night with Tomas Holmstrom on his lap let other players know whose crease it is.

This team suffers no lack of aggressiveness. Confidence they lack.