Martin St-Louis, the new conductor of the numerical advantage, took no time to put his mark on this facet of the game for the Canadian.
• Also read: We are getting closer to the final formation of the Montreal Canadiens
• Also read – More than 25 minutes of play: Lane Hutson continues to shine for the Canadian
For the first time since the start of training camp, he revealed the new composition of his power play during Friday’s practice.
The CH head coach, who took over from Alex Burrows, seemed to have given the following watchword to his attackers: permutation. The four front players are constantly on the move and do not hesitate to change places with a teammate to create openings.
Was it a directive from the coach? More or less, according to his words.
“There is no key formula. The guys have to be on the same page, said St-Louis. You have to play on the same beat. To me, a power play is like an orchestra. You have the different instruments and they all know when it’s their turn to play and on what beat.”
Wool on 2e vague
A major instrument, however, was confined to the second wave. Forward Patrik Laine occupied a chair on the second unit, even though this is his bread and butter.
The coach instead chose to trust Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky and Kirby Dach to fill the forward positions in the first wave. Defenseman Michael Matheson occupied his usual position on the blue line.
The attackers, however, had very different roles from last year. Suzuki found himself on the left wing, Cole Caufield on the right wing, Juraj Slafkovsky as a pivot in the slot and Kirby Dach at the mouth of the net.
“We have ideas of what we want to do, but of course if you’re always in exactly the same place, it’s easy to defend,” said defender Michael Matheson. There is a little more improvisation in this strategy and the more you practice it, it will become easier.
Besides Laine, the second power play unit was rounded out by Joshua Roy, Brendan Gallagher, Alex Newhook and young camp sensation Lane Hutson.
No surprise
It wasn’t just the numerical advantage that was in the spotlight during training, as the numerical advantage units were also entitled to their first lap of the field.
There was, however, no surprise as to their composition. David Savard and Jayden Struble, as well as Joel Armia and Jake Evans will have the task of facing the opposing teams’ first power play unit. Christian Dvorak and Josh Anderson on offense along with Arber Xhekaj and Justin Barron on defense took care of the second wave.
“As a group, we have to be on the same page,” argued Jake Evans, emphasizing the continuity within the numerically inferior units. I try to be a leader among the four-on-five forwards. I’m proud of my work on the penalty kill and I think we took several steps forward last season in this aspect of the game.
Here are the power play units in training:
Roof
Suzuki – Slafkovsky – Caufield
Matheson
Roy
Laine – Gallagher – Newhook
Hutson
Related News :