LAKE PLACID, N.Y. — About 10 minutes before the full squad of Bruins hit the ice for practice at the USA Rink at the Whiteface Lake Placid Olympic Center, 11 power-play performers got in some extra work and tutoring with assistant coach Geoff Ward.
Head coach Claude Julien also was on the ice to watch one quintet of Andrew Ference, Dennis Seidenberg, Mark Recchi, Rich Peverley and Brad Marchand/Michael Ryder go through drills. Marchand and Ryder switched in and out.
The second group was comprised of Zdeno Chara, Tomas Kaberle, Patrice Bergeron, Milan Lucic and David Krejci. Bergeron moved back to forward and spending several weeks playing on the point. Nathan Horton appeared out of the mix.
The Bruins used the same alignments during practice, as they worked on their movement and plays against penalty killers.
The Bruins’ power play is scoreless in 11 opportunities through three games of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series with Montreal. Game 4 is Thursday night in Montreal with the Canadiens leading the series, 2-1.
More later.
I say just treat it just like a 5 on 5. Roll all 4 lines!
It’s the stupid umbrella formation, stop trying to let Chara slap it from the point. Get some screens and run something in the slot. Kaberle is more than capable to run the top by himself. Montreal likes to blitz, you can’t stand near the blue line.
One thing is for sure, the key to winning this series may be getting the powerplay going.
How about putting someone in front of the net to screen price .Washington and pittsburgh didn’t do it last year and guess what they both lost to montreal and so will the Bruins if they don’t smarten up and put a big body infront of Price he is a good goalie and if he can see it he will stop it
Marchand, Bergy and occasionally Krejci have been the only Bruins with the balls to try to create off the half-wall. I agree with a couple of you that they need to get their shots off more quickly once they create a lane… in the playoffs especially, those lanes close up quickly.
The key to any effective powerplay is quick decision-making and variation in attack. We’ve seen the “shoot from the point and crash the net” approach… but how about shooting low off the half-wall with the opposite D-man coming back-door, or a back-door d-man drawing coverage away from the slot to creating space for a cutting forward?
Ryder? Quick relase? Sorry Dr Pete, can’t agree with you. He has an incredibly accurate wrister, but he needs a written invitation to get it off.
Krejci, Kaberle and Bergeron better be willing to take shots when they get them because if I’m an opponent looking at that PP unit, I know the shot is coming from Z.
Right on, PCL! Too many blocked shots because they wait until the defense resets before they shoot!! The whole idea of movement is to open up some shooting lanes. geesh.
QFT, PCL.
Shrink the box, attack the seams, and for the love of Lord Stanley try a one-timer every now and again from anywhere below the tops of the circles.
They’re too spread out/extended and they take far, far too long to get rid of the puck on shots, IMO.
I hate those set ups.. hasnt horton been the only one to do anything on the power play.. i really hope julien and ward are gone becuase those set ups are stupid..
Ryder has a more accurate, harder quick release and the PP could serve to get him going?
Well … I guess its a change. If someone could explain why Horton’s out and Ryder’s in it might make more sense. Seriously … wtf?