Don't overreact.

From the drop of the puck to the final buzzer, there’s no situation in the game where a coach has more control than the power play. The coach designs the breakout, how each player enters the zone, and the eventual setup as well. Outside of joining the chorus of fans screaming “SHOOOOOOT,” your work as a power play coach is mostly done when the game is on.

As coaches, we want a goal every time we’re a person up. Sure, we tell our players it’s about building momentum, but we only say that because we want to brainwash them so they’re more relaxed and they score a goal.

So it’s natural to overreact when the power play goes cold. Watching the seconds tick away as an impotent power play expires leads to rash thoughts of blowing it up and implementing panic moves like putting your top shutdown defenceman in front of the net.

Don’t overreact.

You built your power play a certain way for a reason. Define what works, and look for small areas that can help.

Here are some examples from my team, the Winkler Flyers of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League:

1. Decision paralysis on the 1-3-1 power play

This clip starts with a breakout. You can see that everyone is organized and confident.

Even when McCarthy (#19) hard rims the puck, everyone knows where to go. And once we’re set up? Decision paralysis.

Griffin Leonard (#13) kicks out to give Sulivan Shortreed (#27) an option. The problem is Ian Tookenay (#26) does the same thing on the other side. Sure we get a couple shots, but in a 1-3-1 setup you need traffic. Doesn’t work, so what does the coach do?

Panic.

Very next power play:

McCarthy and Shortreed switch sides. We’d experimented before with the two shooters going downhill on their forehands. They make some terrifying passes up top and again generate another chance, but there’s a common theme: no one is in front.

Leonard kicks out for McCarthy on the left, Tookenay kicks out for Shortreed on the right. Looks cool, same problem.

Steinbach’s coach Paul Dyck has seen this dog and pony show before. His penalty killers don’t care who’s shooting from where. They’re too organized for a perimeter power play, and once the puck is bobbled, they pounce.

What could have been a huge boost kicked off a sequence of pain then resulted in us getting our asses handed to us by the eventual league champs.

2. Simplicity vs creativity

We had a skilled team this year. McCarthy and Shortreed scored 30 goals, Drake Burgin (#16), runs the top of the power play and was named MJHL defenceman of the year. They can do a lot of things, but sometimes having too many options hinders more than helps.

I made the mistake of complicating things when it wasn’t necessary.

The following game we kept the two one-timer threats in their comfortable spots, and because of an injury to Griffin Leonard, put wonderful first year player Jackson Arpin in his spot and told him to stay in front of the net. Ian Tookenay had the option to kick out to the side of the net for McCarthy (#19), or go to the front, and you can see early in the clip that Tooks decided to get to the front as well.

So the message from the coach in the couple days of practices prior to this game sunk in.

A couple more chances, and then watch what eventually goes in:

Drake Burgin does what he does best, getting a seeing-eye shot through traffic. The goalie had no chance, not with Arpin setting up camp right in front of him.

3. Stick to your strengths

The result of Drake’s goal was two things: it released the pressure heading into the playoffs, and it proved to the skilled guys that simple works. It still takes a lot of skill to run the breakout we run, set the puck up, and work to get into position.

We decided to give Tookenay the freedom to set up with the puck behind the net or kick out on McCarthy’s side, but we kept Griffin Leonard in the middle of the ice regardless of where the puck is. He could move north south from the net front to the bumper position, but in order to make Shortreed a true threat on his one-timer side, we needed Leonard in front of the net.

So:

• On McCarthy’s side, Tookenay can kick out or stand in front
• On Shortreed’s side, Leonard stays in front no matter what

Making this small change meant more of the play went through McCarthy, which is what I wanted. It gave him freedom to make plays in a spot in which he’s the most comfortable, and it allowed Burgin to roam a bit freer up top wth the option to pass to either one-timer side or just put the puck on net himself as he did in the clip above.

But regardless of all that, the change we needed to make was simple.

Check out what happened in the first game of the playoffs:

Tookenay grinds below the goal line and recovers the puck, McCarthy and Burgin set up Shortreed in his office, Leonard goes to the front, and Shortreed’s options are limited, which is a good thing in this situation. 

Seeing the results was huge for that unit. Shortreed, Burgin, and McCarthy are deadly players, and Tookenay and Leonard are greasy as f&%k. We went with what worked well for most of the season, added a couple simple tweaks with Leonard and Tookenay, and let the skill of the players take over, and we were rewarded.

In hindsight I still stand by the decision to switch things up because we learned from it. The obstacle is the way, as we said all year, and in this case our obstacle was over-thinking. I don’t know what would have happened if the playoffs weren’t halted by COVID-19, but after this goal I knew our power play was ready to do their part to contribute, as long as the coach didn’t screw it all up by throwing things in a blender again.

That’s the thing, you never know what the other team will do to respond, so it’s up to you to find subtle changes that won’t be difficult for your group to deploy.