Canucks not challenging Chara when Bruins put big man up front
Chara/By S. Bradley
VANCOUVER – At 6-foot-9, Zdeno Chara is supposed to be a haul to move and impossible to see around down low on the Bruins’ power play.
However, in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final Wednesday night Vancouver seemed to have the perfect plan to deal with him.
“Obviously, when you have such a big body like that in front of net, there’s no sense in getting in a pushing match,” explained Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault Thursday on the morning after his team held Boston to 0-for-6 on the power play and took the series lead with a 1-0 win. “We let [goaltender] Roberto [Luongo] play where he is. He can’t look on top of him because he’s so tall. He’s got to look around him. That’s what he did last night and he found the pucks.”
Defenseman Sami Salo, one of the Canucks players tasked with policing the front of the net didn’t sound too disappointed his coach wasn’t demanding him to enter into hand-to-hand combat with Boston’s monster.
“Obviously with 6-9, there’s not many players in the league that can move him,” he said. “So our focus has been to try to leave him and try to take away the passing lanes and try to blocks some shots.”
The Bruins’ power play is now 5-for-67 in the postseason and one for its last 20. That one goal did come with Chara battling in front and David Krejci cashing in off a feed across to the slot from Nathan Horton in Game 6 against Tampa. And Chara did get his stick on a couple tips in Game 1 against the Canucks. But the Bruins might have to start looking at other options if Vancouver’s not going to let Chara distract them and Luongo’s going to see around him.
Head coach Claude Julien is staying positive about the power play, including the Chara experiment.
“Obviously on the power-play he’s given us a different look. I thought he did a pretty good job. As you know, when you get put in that position, there’s always things that you better yourselves at,” said the coach. “Obviously he’s moving around pretty good at trying to be a screen in front and also not trying to get sucked into penalties. They were pretty hard on him yesterday at times. He just got back up and did his job. I anticipate he’ll only get better at that position as we use him there.”
So it sounds like Chara in front is going to be an ongoing attempt to resurrect the long-moribund power play. We’ll find out if the Canucks’ strategy continues to work in Game 2 Saturday night.
I think it’s fine to try Chara in front of the net for another game or two and see if it works out. I like the big body in front, screening the goalie and using his long reach to get pucks that go wide of the net but I don’t think he has the dexterity with the stick to score those tight-in goals off rebounds in front. Lucic is a better option there.
The most promising thing I saw from the PP in game 1 was that Kaberle actually shot the puck a few times. That forces the defensive forwards to respect his shot and come out to challenge him, stretching the box and making cross-ice passes possible. At the same time, though, the Bruins were way too stationary and not causing those seams to open. They need to be a lot more active to get players out of position and to open some room for Chara in front of the net.
I think the team passed PP plan A and B a long time ago and are somewhere on plan X.
My plan for the PP would be to put speed on it, and get the forwards to move their feet and make quick passes. Quick is more likely to pull the killers out of the defensive positions to open shooting lanes.
Our forwards mostly just stand there and pass the puck or wait for passes.
The Canucks figured out how to deal with Chara in front. And they did so quickly. Time for Plan B.
I never liked Plan A, anyway. I can just see Chara limping to the bench after taking a slap shot to the foot. The only thing that comforts me is that with Kaberle on point, there won’t be any shots capable of causing injury.
I think Recchi should be the guy tipping pucks and picking up the garbage in front of the net. He made a career out of it and why he isn’t doing it now is beyond me. That being said, Chara is a smart guy and it’s only a matter of time before he gets the knack of how to play in front of Luongo. Chicago made life really hard for all the Canucks and it’s time to take a page out of the Blackhawk playbook.
It just doesn’t work as was pointed out on the CBC feed he doesn’t know how to play in-front of the net the only real benefit we are seeing is him winning pucks when the shots go wide or get loose as no one can handle him.
He’s not going to be shooting pucks in that rebound he cant get his stick in his feet like that he’s just too big so it just has to be a screen. Then again Lucic would be a better screen anyway he’s wider and he knows how to find the puck from rebounds. The only way I see this Chara thing working is if we create space in front by having his body there and work across the crease.
I liked it at first, especially considering the troubles that Big Buff gave Luongo in the past. But, if it doesn’t begin to work I really think that you have to end the experiment. Do you really want to put more stress, physical/skating strain on your #1 shutdown d-man who logs huge minutes anyway?