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So I've been thinking about the Islanders game-winning powerplay goal last night, and I think there's a lot to take note of so here's a thread...
The last thing I wrote about before I got a real job was the BC Women's powerplay. Honestly, such a quick article but probably the favorite thing I have written outside of my project with Olivia. So read that first and come back to this. https://lowcycle.substack.com/p/why-nhl-teams-should-take-note-of?r=84ydm&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&utm_source=copy
The Eagles use Hannah Bilka as their field general and that's what the Islanders do here. There are two Islanders assigned low, two assigned high, and Barzal goes where ever he feels best. Here he goes from the bottom of the trapezoid into the slot and then to support again.
Next, he rotates the puck back up to the point and stays above his guys down low to get into position to support off of the puck recovery.
On the secondary assist, Barzal ends up on his strong side flank. No bumper leads to two distinctly different passing lanes to cover and the Penguins don't know how to solve it. This is a general weakness of the diamond that the Islanders exploit even more when Eberle moves low.
We (myself included) need to stop thinking about powerplays so systematically. It's really about having your best one or two players cook and have the other three or four support them.
