What Would You Do Thursday: Fixing the Powerplay
By Rhys Jessop
8 years agoWelcome to a new feature here on Canucks Army and all sites on the Nation Network: What Would You Do Wednesday THURSDAY, where we put you, yes YOU, in charge of your own imaginary Vancouver Canucks. We’ll present you with a different scenario each week, and you tell us how you’d solve it in the comments section below. Give props to the answers you do like and trash the ones you don’t. Easy! So let’s get started:
Last time around, we noted that second line centre Nick Bonino was mired in a pretty bad offensive slump, so we asked you how to break him out of it. Surprisingly, most of the top responses agreed that the way to get Bonino going again was a little bit of creativity on his wings, particularly in the form of a (still injured) Zack Kassian. From Goon:
Bonino was riding an unsustainably high shooting percentage to start the year. Now he has an unsustainably low shooting percentage.
Outside of the last couple of games where the whole team has looked bad, nothing about Bonino’s or the second line’s play has stuck out as particularly bad, they just aren’t putting the chances in the net. I’m not personally too worried about it. Bonino’s known as a streaky scorer and he’s been scoring in bunches. I wouldn’t panic or push him down to the bottom of the lineup – he’ll score a few goals again soon. That said, Bonino’s shown some good skill as a finisher – put Kassian on his wing when he’s healthy and see how the two work together, or even put Burrows back up with the Sedins and move Vrbata to the second line and see if that helps him find his touch again.
Or the team could try Bonino in Vey’s slot on the power play. Might give both Bonino and the power play a bit more jump.
Reader Van largely agreed, suggesting that Alex Burrows may be suited for a more defensive shutdown role too:
He could use some more skill on his line. Vey or Kassian in for Burrows. Burrows and Hansen could be the basis of an excellent shutdown line, but Willie wants balance in all his lines, so maybe Burrows with Kassian/Vey + Horvat. That leaves you with Matthias and Hansen getting all the breakaways.
Personally, I don’t think I’d take Burrows away from Bonino. The American centre does have his defensive warts, and playing with Burrows goes a long way to limiting some of Bonino’s shortcomings. Compared to when Burrows isn’t on his wing, Bonino is five percentage points better for Corsi (53.6% with, 48.6% without), and allows nearly three fewer attempts against per 20 minutes of ice time, compared to generating one more.
More than anything though, Bonino just has the low PDO blues. There’s not much you can do in that case, aside from what Ruprecht suggested:
I’d give him a big hug and tell him everything is going to be OK.
Unfortunately, I really don’t think hugs are going to fix this week’s issue, which is the powerplay. It’s becoming an increasingly big deal of late since no one on the Canucks is scoring, but even when it was successful, there have been issues bubbling under the surface all year. Quite simply, Vancouver does not generate enough shots with the man advantage.
Last season, the Canucks had an exceptionally strong shot rate with the man advantage, and their PP struggles were caused by a combination of poor shooting luck, and, by my eyes, bad shot selection. Jason Garrison was Vancouver’s main weapon, and he fired the vast majority of his shots not from the top of the slot, but from the far right point, which is as low a shooting percentage area as there is on the ice.
Garrison and Ryan Kesler, another huge volume shooter on the PP, are both gone this year, and Vancouver’s shot rate has suffered immensely. According to HockeyAnalysis, the Canucks are 22nd in the NHL in ShotsFor/60 at 5v4, just ahead of the Edmonton Oilers. With the exception of the New Jersey Devils (who are voodoo magic) and the Tampa Bay Lightning (who possess a super-elite finisher), every other team that’s in the top-10 for PP% is also generating more than 50 shots/60 min at 5v4 and generating shots at an above average clip.
So how do the Canucks fix this problem? Do they have the right players on the roster, but just haven’t been using them correctly? Is the umbrella system just not working, and would a tweak by the coaching staff improve performance? Is there a personnel issue? Should the Canucks call up someone from Utica or try and make a trade? Who should they add? Tell us how they should fix the powerplay in the comments below!
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