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

Today's article will examine the power play, which in hockey is one component of special teams. Though the majority of the game is played at 5-on-5, leading many stat heads to place an emphasis on 5v5 metrics, special teams are still crucial. They comprise only around 20-25% of a given game, yet the nature of the situation (one team having more players than the other), makes it a huge tipping point in nearly every game. We just witnessed the Tampa Bay Lightning, who will get plenty of discussion in this piece, win two playoff rounds largely because their elite power play was too much for the opposition to handle, which should provide evidence for the importance of special teams. A bad power play is a major weakness that the opposition can expose, and a good team should be at least average on the PP. 

Power Plays

This piece will mostly discuss PP's in their 5v4 variety, as opposed to rarer kinds like 5v3, 6v4, or 4v3. It's important to first remember that a very good power play, be it at the NCAA or NHL level, is only going to convert at roughly a 25% clip. Last year's Michigan team had the 7th best PP in college hockey, firing at 23.7%. That's pretty standard for an elite power play. So we shouldn't pretend like scoring on a PP is easy or that you can do it all the time. However, what should be expected is that a good PP gets at least 1-2 quality looks each PP opportunity. If the shots go wide, or the goalie comes up with a huge save, so be it. But generating those chances is the objective of the PP. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: You like diagrams? I like diagrams!]

Any coach who is building a PP unit is going to be faced with a few tasks. Step one is devising a breakout strategy that will get the puck into the offensive zone, with possession established. Step two is choosing a scheme for the controlled offensive zone possession that will result in high quality scoring chances. Step three is choosing the players who fit that scheme and then plugging their skills to the requirement of the scheme. First we're going to talk about establishing possession. 

Getting it in the zone 

Generally speaking, it's very hard to get an odd-man rush on a PP. They happen every so often if the opposition is in the midst of a terrible line change, but otherwise, the PK unit, by nature is going to be conservative. They're going to leave their players around the blue line and are going to do everything they can to stop you from breaking in all alone. As a result, PP chances almost always come from established possession sequences in the offensive zone, which means the first objective of the PP is to get the puck in the zone with control. There are generally two ways to do this: 1.) win an offensive zone faceoff or 2.) execute a successful controlled zone entry after the puck has been cleared out of the OZ. The former is why most teams will want their best faceoff player with reasonable offensive skill being out there to take a draw on the PP, while the latter requires more strategy. 

As for that strategy, there are any number of plays that coaches like to use to get the puck into the offensive zone with possession. The breakout/zone entry on a PP almost always follows the same format: the opposition clears the puck out of their zone and all the way down the ice, and then they go off for a change. The team with the PP retreats, and one defenseman skates back behind his own net to retrieve the puck and then boom, the breakout begins. What comes next is not unlike what we discussed in the transition play article, a zone exit, a move through the neutral zone, and then the zone entry. What's different is that with the manpower disadvantage, the opposition isn't going to pressure the zone exit whatsoever, and has fewer bodies to clog the NZ and obstruct entries. Most will just sit back and sell out to stop the entry, meaning the movement through the first half of the ice on the PP is mostly a breeze. It's getting between the center line and the offensive blue line that's the hard part.

A lot of teams like to use some variation of dual motion, where the defenseman skates from behind the net up to around the blue line, and then gives the puck to someone else, who is picking up speed before the hand-off, and then that player zooms through the NZ and penetrates the zone with possession. Here's an example of one such play, the double late, in diagram form, from Hockey Plays and Strategies (2018): 

And here it is in real life: 

The defenseman who retrieves the puck skates up the ice, then lays it behind for a forward who's picking up speed to snag it and then charge through the NZ and enter the zone. There's a lot of different varieties of this kind of play but it's mostly the same concept. Teams like it because the speed of the player receiving the pass gives them an advantage compared to the mostly stationary defensive players, and thus makes it easier to gain the zone with possession. 

Other teams prefer a more simplistic breakout strategy, though, something called the single swing breakout. In this one, the defenseman skates only a few strides in front of his own net and then from there has four options, a forward in the center of the ice, two forwards up the wall, and one forward way up ice for a risky stretch pass. A quick pass is made and now it's the responsibility of the receiving player to orchestrate the entry. Here it is in diagram form: 

And here's our video example: 

This is a pretty simple strategy to learn and coach, and is good if you don't have one singular speedy and strong player who can get you easy entries. These are just two examples of different plays coaches could choose from but they comprise two of the broader schools of thought on PP breakout strategies, which is why I selected them. 

In the zone 

So once you've gained the offensive zone, it's time to set up your power-play unit. Again, there are many options to choose from, but I will lead you through the main schematic alignments. Before we get to that, however, I want to talk about a few tenants of PP theory, things every good PP unit should be able to do regardless of alignment: 

1. Make passes across the zone that allow the puck to change sides, one of the most dangerous plays in hockey 
2. Get the puck to high danger areas, specifically between the dots, in the middle of the ice, close to the goal 
3. Take shots that will not be blocked by the opposition, but that have a screen in front so that the goalie is not seeing the shot unobstructed  

Virtually all great PP units are able to do those things with regularity, no matter how they are set up in terms of X's and O's. Now, onto some strategy: 

The 1-3-1 Power Play

This bad boy is now all the rage in the NHL, thanks to the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Lightning have demonstrated over the last three seasons that when fully healthy, their PP is the best in the NHL. It scored at a mind-bening 40% clip in the first two rounds of this year's playoffs using their trademark 1-3-1 format. The key to this unit is having both players on the half-wall (labeled #2 and #3 in the above diagram) be able to shoot and pass at proficient levels, even if one is more of a passer and the other is more of a shooter. In Tampa's case, they position Steven Stamkos at spot 2 and Nikita Kucherov at spot 3, and though Stamkos is more of the shooter and Kucherov more of the passer, both are able to shoot and pass effectively. The defenseman (spot #1) moves around the blue line, ready to blast a slapshot, but is really more of a facilitator than a focal point on this unit. In Tampa's case, they use Victor Hedman in that spot. The bumper (#4) is supposed to move around the high-danger area, drawing the attention of the opposition, which then opens up passing lanes for #2 and #3 to pass the puck back-and-forth. Tampa uses Brayden Point in the bumper slot, while the netfront player is Alex Killorn, whose job it is to provide effective screens and finish rebounds. 

Here is the monstrous 1-3-1 Tampa PP in action: 

Simply beautiful. Point wins the draw, Kucherov helps establish possessions, he immediately makes a pass cross-zone to Stamkos, helping the puck change sides, then it's Stamkos -> Hedman -> Kucherov, passing in the blink of an eye back cross-zone and then a laser shot from Kucherov and it's in the back of the net. A 0% chance for Sergei Bobrovsky in net for Florida to make that save. Killorn applies a brief screen while the puck is with Hedman at the point, setting Bobrovsky back just a bit on the play in terms of visibility, and from then on he's chasing the puck and trying to catch up. He is unable to do so. The quick movement and the strong passing from multiple places on the PP are all the key tenets of a good PP and they're present here in the 1-3-1 formation. 

The Overload Power Play

In this set up, you basically make a box that covers half of the ice and concentrate all your efforts on that half. Player #2 in the above diagram is going to be the puck-handler who will be the conductor of offense and lead the puck-movement. Player #4 is the point defenseman, who will mostly just be used for his point shot. #1 is the low-walk player who has to be able to pass, recover rebounds, and move in front of the net when needed. #3 is the netfront player, while #5 is the mystery man, the weak-side defenseman who the defense will most often lose track of, because he's not on the overload side. A common play in the overload formation is to have #5 sneak down the far side and have #2 hit him with a cross-zone pass for a high-danger scoring chance.

Here's the overload in action: 

Kopitar (LAK11) is the conductor at the half-wall, and he passes to the low-walk player Gaborik (LAK12). As Gaborik drives the net, Carter (LAK77), the netfront guy, pops out to get himself in position for a pass and to clear space for Gaborik to drive. Gaborik drives and Martinez (LAK27), the weakside mystery defenseman, sees what's happening and slides down low. Gaborik makes a nice toedrag and pass through the slot to Martinez, who walks in and fires the shot by the goalie. The special sauce of this alignment is the weakside defenseman and the ability to have a low-walk player who can make those passes, and also be physical enough to threaten at the net. 

The Umbrella Power Play 

We have to be moderately careful in terms of our terminology for this alignment because some people blend the umbrella and the 1-3-1 into the same thing and they aren't necessarily. The main concept for the umbrella is the three player half-circle shape at the point, players #3, #1, and #2 in the above diagram. The two players down by the net may be either in that above formation, or they may be stacked one above the other. When they're stacked, it starts to look an awful lot like the 1-3-1. The difference tends to be that in the true umbrella, the two players on the walls are higher up by the point man, whereas in the 1-3-1 they tend to be farther down the wall. When the two players (#4 and #5) are set up as they are in the above diagram, that is always an "umbrella" alignment. This strategy is predicated on point shots from your three players up by the blue line, while you have two players close to the net which can create a high volume of traffic and gives you effective screens in front. 

Here's Mickey Redmond explaining the umbrella with the two players stacked on top of each other, so that it sorta resembles the 1-3-1: 

That's both a good visual explainer, and it also showcases the options that you get, the heavily screened point shot, or the diagonal pass between the edges of your umbrella. 

We should all look forward to seeing Nick Blankenburg on the PP this fall [James Coller]

Power Plays: In Conclusion

The aim of this post was to showcase a few different kinds of breakout/zone entry plays and fully set-up PP alignments. Though they may look different on a whiteboard, they all want very similar things from their players, and the skills required to execute them are pretty similar. For the zone entry plays, you want defensemen who can move the puck by making an effective first pass, and a speedy forward who is strong on the puck, just the way you did when we discussed 5v5 transition play, and that's true no matter the kind of breakout strategy you draw up and use. In the offensive zone, you want one player who can shoot in a hard and accurate manner and one player who can distribute the puck across the zone, and that's true no matter the kind of PP setup you're using. You also want a netfront player who can screen and finish chances in front, strong enough not to get moved out of the way, and a defenseman with a good point shot and puck-moving ability. 

Scouts look for those skills when they're assessing both college hockey recruits and NHL draft prospects, because they translate no matter the kind of power play you're running. And ultimately, strategy can only take you so far. I like the 1-3-1 PP formula, but the reason it's so deadly in Tampa is not because of the X's and O's, but because at all five positions, the Lightning have just about the best possible player on the planet to fit each role. The players they have in each position on the PP possess skillsets tailor-made for that position. Kucherov is a world-class passer, Stamkos is a world-class shooter, Hedman is a world-class puck-moving defenseman, Killorn is a strong-as-a-bull netfront guy, and Point is a top 10 center in the world. Talent talks, and drawing up schemes that work for your talent is just as important on the PP as it is in the forechecking game, as we discussed about in the last article. 

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Alright, that's it for today. We'll be back in the next few days with the other half of special teams, penalty kills. As always, feel free to leave any comments or questions and I will do my best to respond!