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Penguins tell fans “Leave Mike Yeo alone !!” for woeful powerplay
by Tony on 12/09/09 at 09:28 AM ET
Comments (12)
Imagine the chuckle I got this morning when I read Dave Molinari’s article today in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on the Penguins’ powerplay.
In it, Dave states “assistant coach Mike Yeo, who oversees the power play, has been subjected to frequent, and often ferocious, criticism from some segments of the Penguins’ fan base for that, and more than a few observers have suggested he should be relieved of those duties, if not flat-out fired.”
While I’d like to think I might have a small part in that, that wasn’t the source of the chuckle.
That came when Pens’ head coach Dan Bylsma wanted to stress that Yeo, who has been running the Pens’ powerplay seemingly since the Coolidge administration, should not be held solely responsible for the team’s terrible performance with the man advantage.
Respectfully, I’ve got one word in response to that. Poppycock.
Listen, I give HCDB all the props in the world for coming to the defense of his maligned assistant. He’s a good team player, so to speak.
Disco Dan stated “Mike doesn’t get free rein, [with the power play, where] I don’t say anything.” He also said, “what we do is together. When we go to do something, we’re together. We’ve weighed in, and we’ve given our two cents. We’ve gone and investigated what other teams have done and do, and try to have a real good picture of what we think success is on a power play, as a coaching staff and as a unit, then we try to apply it in practice.”
Wow. You’ve really looked at what other teams do on the powerplay ?? Sure doesn’t seem like it. Seems like it’s the same old, same old stationary powerplay to me. You know what I’m talking about. The one with Sergei Gonchar at the point, Evgeni Malkin along the right boards and Sidney Crosby on the right goalline passing the puck to one another, while the penalty killers could order a hot dog and a brew, ‘cause nobody is moving without the puck in Yeo’s system. And therein lies the problem. The system.
I’m not going to rehash my entire powerplay argument, frankly it puts me in a bad mood for the rest of the day.
Bottom line is this: Whatever is being done on the Pens’ powerplay, being run by whomever, is not working, to put it lightly. All I know is that Mike Yeo ran a lousy Penguins’ powerplay before HDCB took over, and it’s continued to be lousy to the present day.
What’s the common demoninator ??
Yeo.
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Tags: NHL-Hockey, Pittsburgh+Penguins,
Comments
Well, yeah, but if the system directs them to simply pass the puck to each other until someone decides to shoot, that’s the issue….
It’s that system that doesn’t have them moving without the puck, thereby opening passing/shooting lanes…
Posted by Tony from Virginia Beach, VA on 12/09/09 at 09:50 AM ET
you’re right Tony, i have to think this is more a shot in the arm to Yeo than anything else. until now, there has been no recognition atleast in the media that there is a problem. If anything this should make him stand up and realize people are noticing…
Posted by Greg on 12/09/09 at 10:08 AM ET
No movement combined with limited presence in front of the net is killing them. Not to mention the lack of finishing ability for anyone on the weakside whether it be Guerin, Staal, or Kunitz, just no hands there. When Goligoski returns I like to believe it would improve a little.
Also, not ideal but if you have to ice a PP with 5 left handed shots to make it work then you do it. Any improvement is worth it with the way they have been going.
Posted by Russian Rocket on 12/09/09 at 10:58 AM ET
This is an area where the Red Wings lag behind. Too few are critical of Brad McCrimmon in the MSM or blogosphere. The pens seem to be beyond denial.
Posted by redxblack from Akron Ohio on 12/09/09 at 11:25 AM ET
Well, yeah, but if the system directs them to simply pass the puck to each other until someone decides to shoot, that’s the issue…
That’s the most common misunderstanding about the powerplay in my opinion. Granted, Yeo must be handed some of the blame for the lack of progress as the one in charge (theoretically). But this is not football with specified playcalling, it’s a lot more dynamic and chaotic. You can train patterns and themes (objectives), but there’s required adaptation and creativity by the players on the ice. Here, I believe, the players are failing.
Perhaps Yeo has tried to change things around and introduced new ideas, no one from the outside can properly evaluate much beyond the actual match result. I sometimes get the feeling that Crosby, Malkin and Gonchar regularly revert to their comfort zone. The one that isn’t working. You could probably argue that Yeo therefore lacks authority, but I doubt he isn’t attempting change. Do people believe that another powerplay coach would cause the trio to change their ways dramatically? Maybe, but I’m not convinced.
In essence I think the blame should be divided equally.
Posted by Moq from Denmark on 12/09/09 at 11:27 AM ET
How can you tell that the Penguins told the fans loud enough to warrant two exclamation marks, but not quite three?
Posted by Animal Drew from A Nightmare on Helm Street on 12/09/09 at 11:43 AM ET
I agree Moq, I think hockey unfolds too quickly to blame the guy behind the bench.
Granted, I don’t think Yeo’s the best offensive mind in the game, but once the guys get out there it’s up to them. If they’re a little to stagnant, it’s because the players are settling in and picking their spots.
Yeo can’t really get them to change too much (no one probably moves less than Crosby, they gonna bench him?), he’s just gotta figure out how to get pucks/players to the net.
Posted by Hooks Orpik on 12/09/09 at 11:44 AM ET
It’s atrocious. We constantly hear changes will be coming, but it ends up being the same old, same old.
I guess maybe our players aren’t good enough. We should go out and get Grabovsky, Kessel, Blake, and Kaberle. Or maybe the Bluejackets’ personnel. They seem to have very little problem.
You literally have to coach in a complete ABSURD way in order to screw a pp up with the players we have. If we were average, fine, but the fact that we’re almost dead last in the league shows that our coaches are running a system that is ridiculously bad.
Posted by digdug767 from Thunder Bay on 12/09/09 at 12:43 PM ET
Yeo can’t really get them to change too much (no one probably moves less than Crosby, they gonna bench him?), he’s just gotta figure out how to get pucks/players to the net.
That’s exactly the problem, there is no movement. I’m not quite convinced that the lack of movement by every single player on the PP is a result of them becoming “stagnant” or falling into their “comfort zones”. I just simply do not buy into the idea that during every single powerplay the Penguins have a strategy in place which features any movement or one that allows them to move around. If this were the case I am certain it would have been seen atleast once in the last few years that Yeo was at the helm of the powerplay. The result instead is that the most movement that occurs in Malkin moving up and down along the right boards and Gonchar shuttling towards the center or boards and on the rarest of occasions the other defenseman out there, usually Letang, will try to cut into the backdoor but again as I said this is a rare occurrence.
The perception is this lack of movement is a fixture of Yeo’s strategy. This perception, for me at least, is what vilifies Yeo in Pens fan circles. Many other successful power plays feature some movement from their players and Pens fans would like to see the success the highly talented players that they ice on the PP could have if they were given the green light to move around a little more rather than the very predictable umbrella we’re currently running. Whether or not Yeo is responsible for these woes as many people the fact of the matter is something needs to change and it seems that this change will not be coming in the form of Yeo losing the reigns.
Posted by JBM on 12/09/09 at 12:48 PM ET
the problem is that geno and sid both feel like they have to be on the right endboards to be effective. so they both try their dammdest to go there and dictate play. which ends up with ridiculous passes that are picked off or, the most frequently, are in a position where the person receiving the pass has no shot option and therefore must pass the puck yet AGAIN. blame sid and geno for this. not so much yeo, though,theoretically, he SHOULD be able to coach these two into following HIS (and apparently hcdb’s) system and not to worry about where on the ice the two are seemingly glued to because they feel comfortable there.
Posted by shae on 12/09/09 at 06:29 PM ET
im wondering if here are any statistics to be found from when yeo worked with glenn patrick in the AHL. because then i feel we’d have more to go on.
the powerplay under hcdb and therrien has been the same. so the constant there are the PP players and the PP coach. if Yeos time under patrick looked the same as his time here in the bigs then its painfully obvious. unfortunately i dont know where to look.
either way enough excuses already. is time to try new things. have they really looked a other teams PP units…hell take a look at the Caps alone to see a deadly powerplay.
Posted by saintjust21 on 12/11/09 at 05:46 PM ET
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What’s the common demoninator ??
Crosby, Malkin, Gonchar also.
Posted by Test on 12/09/09 at 09:49 AM ET