Penalty Kill

[Indywing63 0]

Hello all,

I was an infrequent poster on Wingstalk and not sure where the site went? Tough crowd at times and difficult to be "accepted" as part of the in crowd so hopefully this is different. I had posted on there before about the frustration i have watching our penalty kill. We sit in this "passive" box and let other teams fire away relying on our goaltending. While "they" say that the goaltender is your best penalty killer this system is not working....and could be a big downfall come playoff time. The part that frustrates me most is it has been this way for the past few years and Babcock and staff havent' changed it! Can we possibly get more aggressive. I will use the Pens as an example. When Byelsma took over and Granato came on to run PK they became VERY aggressive, not even letting a team set up for a shot! This system is working with many other teams as well. My thought....why not TRY it and if it doesn't work you can always go back to the passive contained box! Very frustrating to watch! Your thoughts are appreciated.......our penalty kill is terrible and even last night with Coyotes 30th ranked PP they can score! It's pathetic! There.....i vented.....please comment. Thanks all!

[wings_fanatic 677]

I agree with you. The funny part is that the Red Wings literally kill off 5 on 3s 10 times better then 5 on 4s. Why? Because on a 5 on 3 they are much more aggressive and block all the passing lanes and when they get to that puck they make sure it goes down all the way. One thing I have seen improvement in recently though is they challenge the other team a lot more now when they try to gain the zone and clear it down right away. The problem for the Red Wings, when shorthanded 5 on 4, is that when the other team gains the zone all the Red Wings do is circle around and get in the lane. That is good, but the problem is they are far too passive. You watch clips from 2008 when we won the Cup and you will see how much more the Wings challenged that year and that is why they had the best PK and ultimately that helped them win the Cup.

I think Babcock and staff have to go back and look at tape from 2008 in a lot of areas for this team because our PK and our PP that year were the league's best and this year both specialty teams SUCK. I agree with you that this issue needs to be ironed out because, lets face it, when we play the Sharks in the playoffs they get the better end of calls 90% of the time.

The way I see it, we are the best 5 on 5 team in hockey (along with the Bruins). We are first place in the NHL, but have a below average specialty teams. IF Mike Babcock and his staff, along with the players, can fix this problem then they will become even more dangerous and that could be the difference in the long run.

[rrasco 1,312]

I s***ty opposition PP means they are almost guaranteed to score against us. I agree, our PK sucks right now, almost as bad as our PP.

[evilzyme 769]

I'm not going to say that we aren't changing things up or playing aggressively because it honestly depends on the unit. When Helm is out there, he was causing havoc up high making it hard to pass back without turning it over and losing possession of the zone. With Blashill and Peters coming in this season, they still need to experiment and see what's working. I mean, look at our power play, yes, we have been off but how many times have we changed it this season? We've seen 3 high up top throwing passes through each others legs, we've seen them work the outsides and release from the point for secondary chances, we've seen the beautiful set passing plays that result in a 5 man tick tack toe play. We just need to give them some time to see whats most effective with OUR style and players. As long as it's fixed prior to the post-season, i'll deal with it. Would we be better off right now with it? Absolutely, we're losing some points here and there, but atleast we aren't struggling with five on five hockey.

Edited February 7, 2012 by evilzyme