Silver Nuggets: Anatomy of the Senators powerplay entries

Hi all! I received mostly positive feedback on the last Nuggets where I broke down all of the Senators goals, so I'm going to do it again here in this space. There was only one goal (but it was enough!), and because it was on the powerplay, I'll take some time to look at the set-ups the Senators have been using so far this season to enter the zone with the extra man.

PP Entry I

This one is a pretty standard breakout, with Wiercioch the lone defenseman back, and Michalek, Zibanejad, and Chiasson going up the ice on their respective locations of LW, C, RW.

The puck moves over to Michalek, who flips it to Zibanejad after he draws a man to him. The crisp puck movement that we've seen so far in tight spaces over the course of this breakout is paying its dues, and you'll soon see that both of the Florida defense think that Zibanejad is going to carry it in through the middle. Instead...

He flips it to Chiasson, who can enter with speed on the right wing. Again, all of this is possible because the Senators enter with speed. Alex has a ton of options now, as he could drive it to the net, shoot and pick a corner or...

Pass it back to the point (Wiercioch in this case), as the Senators love to do very often. The great entry means that all of Florida's players are out of position, and start to scramble, which opens up lanes for exploitation. Wiercioch ends up sending it over to Ceci (left point) for a one-timer, and the Sens generate a bunch of shot attempts off this entry.

PP Entry II

The second type of entry was tried a bunch last season, and can only really done by a very fast, elusive player, such as Erik Karlsson. This is a riskier entry, because if the defensemen don't back up and are aggressive, the puck could end up 200 feet away.

So here we see basic stuff - Karlsson with the puck near his own net and the forwards getting ready to rotate to start skating up the ice.

Here we see Karlsson's speed come into play as he can start to beat defenders, and the other members of the penalty kill have to check their gap control to match his speed.

After Karlsson backs everyone up, he drops it back for puck carrier. Here we can start to see some of the issues with this type of entry, as his drop pass narrowly misses the Panther forward, and the other three defenders are in a line guarding the offensive zone.

The entry works this time though, with the extra pass to Turris allowing him to avoid the high Panthers forward and find a gap on the right side of the zone for him to set up.

Eventually, the end game for the Senators is always to send the puck to the point, which is open because the defenders have to respect the forwards ability to pass and make a play down low quickly.

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With that in mind, take a look at the MacArthur PP goal. As you can see, it's a modified version of 'PP Entry I', with the Senators attacking with speed, backing up the defense, and a fantastic pass from Kyle Turris allowing Clarke MacArthur to split the D and eventually Luongo for a gorgeous goal.

Thanks for reading!

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Sens Links

• The Senators played two games since the last Nuggets, so here are the recaps. First, from Saturday night against Tampa Bay [Silver Seven Recap, Rank the Performances, NHL, SensChirp, SenShot, Ottawa Citizen]
• Here's your Panthers game recaps! [Silver Seven Recap, Rank the Performances, NHL, SensChirp, SenShot, Ottawa Citizen]
• In light of the Panthers game and their well-documented attendance - a franchise low - Amelia has a piece on attendance woes and what it can mean for a team. [Silver Seven]
• Now that the road trip is over, the Sens play 8 of their next 11 games at home, including some games that most of the S7 crew will be there at! The Citizen has a recap of the three game road trip, and Varada shares his road trip thoughts [Ottawa Citizen, WTYKY]
• Nichols has a fantastic article on the term "pesky Sens", and as someone who agrees with Bobby Ryan in that "pesky" is overused, I agree with most of the thoughts. [6th Sens]
• Here's a look at the Week Ahead from B_T! The Bonk's Mullet gang also has their 'Week Ahead' piece by Chris and Capital Gains. [Silver Seven, Bonk's Mullet]
• Ian and Jeff have BSens coverage this year! The AHL affiliate had their opening game against the Worcester Sharks and lost. Former Ohio State Buckeye and one of my favourite prospects, Ryan Dzingel, had two goals. [Silver Seven, SenShot]
• In light of Captain Karlsson buying C's for the first 1000 fans at the Canadian Tire Centre today (hurry!), Mike Wheeler has a parody piece featuring Chris Phillips. [Bonk's Mullet]/

• A really nice piece from the Calgary Herald on now-Flames blueliner Deryk Engelland and his path to the NHL. I love hearing stories like this. [Calgary Herald]
• Mirtle has a piece on whether the enforcer role is coming to an end in the NHL. [The Globe & Mail]
• Also from the Globe, the story of how CBC lost HNiC. [The Globe & Mail]
• Nathan MacKinnon has an acceleration race with Olympic Gold medalist Charles Hamelin. Wonder who wins? [The Score]/

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Thanks for reading!