luke martin

Learning Hockey, a Summer Series: Previously College Hockey 101, Nuts and Bolts 1: Transition Play, Nuts and Bolts 2: Forechecking, Nuts and Bolts 3: Power Plays

Part 4 of our Nuts and Bolts series will look at the penalty kill. Monday's piece took a look at power plays, and so today we handle the opposite. If you haven't read part 3, I'd recommend doing so, because this deep dive on PK's goes hand-in-hand with that one on the PP, and I will make references to that piece here. Penalty killing is an extremely important component of the hockey game, even if it is only a small sliver of the total time on ice. Teams with poor penalty kills can see all their hard work at 5v5 erased in the matter of seconds if they cede a PPG or two to the opposition. Michigan Hockey fans may remember the 2017-18 Michigan team, whose bid for a national title was dashed because the team consistently couldn't kill penalties effectively in big moments. Penalty killing is every bit as important as the power play, and good teams should also be at least competent on the PK to seriously threaten for a championship in their respective league. 

Penalty Killing 

Killing penalties is the flip side to power plays and it often involves a different set of players. Though some elite forwards and defensemen can play on both the PP and PK (Owen Power, Nick Blankeburg, Matty Beniers, and Thomas Bordeleau all play on both for Michigan), you often switch out some of those high skill passers and shooters for players with more refined skill sets, ones who can block shots, win faceoffs reliably, and battle in the corner for loose pucks. Relentless forechecking ability, size, and smarts are valued on penalty kills, and those forwards and defensemen not known for offense who play down in their team's lineup often appear on penalty kills, which in Michigan's case tends to be guys like Nolan Moyle and Garrett Van Wyhe. 

Penalty killing is less schematic than some of our previous topics (forechecking, PP's), and so instead I'm going to just go through several components of the penalty kill and identify traits that come in handy and that coaches value when building their penalty kills, although there will be some strategic discussion. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: Let's Kill Some Penalties!]

I agree with Luke Martin [Bill Rapai]

Friday, January 19, 2018

#20 Michigan 4, #12 Penn State 0

1st period

BECKER GOAL

UM 1 PSU 0 EV 12:27 Assists: Norris & Slaker

Becker picks up the puck behind the net and passes up the boards for Norris. He then heads for the front of the net as Slaker loops around and gets into position to receive a pass on the red line. Michigan’s power play has just expired (see the still-present chyron at the top of the screen cap) but they’re still looking to isolate and exploit one defender’s coverage.

Norris holds the puck long enough to get the high defender to commit to shutting down the passing lane back to the point, which leaves him a clear pass to Slaker with one defender having to temper his aggressiveness since he’s playing a 2-on-1.

Norris starts to skate for the front of the net after he passes, then he curls around to get in position for a pass from Slaker. Meanwhile, Slaker skates up to where Norris was; Hults circles and sticks with Slaker, leaving Norris for someone else to check. No one does, though, as Biro pursues Norris and then breaks off his path to get back to the top corner of the now-unnecessary box for…reasons. This leaves Norris wiiiiide open.

Norris has a clear shot but also has an option since Becker has gotten great position in front of the net, rotating to open himself up so that he could take a pass. The defender on Becker has definitely not gotten great position, instead going around Becker and leaving himself walled off by the guy he’s supposed to be covering.

Norris’ shot goes off the back of Becker’s blade and in before Autio can even think about getting his stick around Becker. I think he went over the top of Becker to potentially play the lane between Norris and Becker and was way too late to even finish getting to that part of the ice.

[After THE JUMP: no more cycling but some unreal passing]