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The United States dropped a tough decision to their neighbors to the North for the 2nd consecutive Winter Olympics. The Americans once again lost by 1 goal but this time it did not require overtime and this time it wasn’t is as close as the score.
The Canadians were flawless in their 5 on 5 play and did not allow any sustained pressure by the Americans. Given that the Americans could not find any time and space at even strength it was imperative for them to cash in on their power play opportunities. The Americans did the opposite; their power plays were largely ineffective and were blown opportunities.
Some people might have the discussion about roster personnel and if players like Keith Yandle and Dustin Byfuglien would have helped (certainly a case to be made), but I found the Americans problems to be strategy related, not personnel related.
My two biggest issues with the power play were the lack of puck support for Phil Kessel on the half wall and the inability to adjust to the Canadians aggressive PK unit.
Below I will break down a sequence that I believe summed up the Americans night on the power play.
In this first slide Ryan Suter has just passed the puck over to Phil Kessel. It wasn’t an accurate pass and Kessel had to wait for the puck to carom off the wall before collecting it in. The Canadian player up top will aggressively pursue Kessel. You will notice the red bubble, that is where Kessel’s low support should be. Instead the US has two players screening the goalie with no potential shot on goal coming.
You can see the player in red that should be skating over near the corner for support in the green area. That player does not need to skate all the way into the corner; he would just have to take a few strides so that Pietrangelo can’t get his stick on the potential pass. The black area up top shows that the Canadian PK player has for the moment taken away a return pass to Ryan Suter. Kessel does not have any dangerous options at this point in time.
Phil Kessel being Phil Kessel he actually found a way to shake that aggressive PK player and get the puck up top to Suter. Here is where you could argue the Americans had a slight personnel problem. Ryan Suter is a left handed player; because he is left handed it makes it much more difficult to walk the blue line with the puck. If you are going to work your power play from that side of the ice it probably would have made more sense for a guy like Kevin Shattenkirk (right handed) to play the spot where Suter was.
Walking the blue line is such an important part of the power play because it forces the top PK man to make a choice, is he going to take the shooting lane away, or the return pass to Kessel. In a perfect world the American players would follow the arrows as Suter walks the blue line. Fowler sneaks lower to form the umbrella; the US player in the high slot creates a screen with him and the Canadian PK player guarding him, and the US player down low sneaks off the side of the net for a back door shot-pass play if Suter has no shooting lane.
Given how aggressive Canada was with their PK up near the blue line it was imperative for the US defenseman to walk the blue line to create that back door option. With Canada shifting so far up high, getting the puck down low would open up an obvious 2 on 1 situation. The Americans did not adjust and take advantage of this potential weakness for Canada.
Instead of walking the blue line Suter goes back to Phil Kessel. The top PK man for the Canadians was able to cover Suter’s shooting lane because he did not walk the line. By not walking the blue line Suter also allowed the Canadian player to be in close proximity to the Phil Kessel. Once again we see the green bubble where there should be support for a direct pass. Right now there is no dangerous player for the US. Kessel runs out of time and space and he is forced to rim the puck around down low instead of making a crisp direct pass.
The Canadians are in a great spot here. There are no immediate scoring threats and they have taken away any quality passing lane. Instead of patiently skating the puck around the net the American player forces the puck into the red bubble area with 3 Canadians and 1 American. Not a high percentage play.
The failed pass attempt deflects off the group in front and heads back to the side boards. Immediately you Canadian penalty killers smell blood and make their aggressive move towards the puck.
Kessel is now in a 1 on 2 situation on the power play, something that should never happen. Kessel was unable to beat the odds and the Canadians cleared the puck down the length of the ice.
When you are playing a team that is as great as Canada, you cannot afford to make tactical errors like the ones we saw on the USA power play today.
The Americans failed to execute the basics of a power play by not providing puck support and not creating/finding their 2 on 1’s.
The one occasion that the Americans did come close on the power play was when the Patrick Kane unit was on the ice. When Kane had the puck on the half wall he had support up high and down low. The US was able to utilize the support down low and work the puck back up high. This got the PK unit to move around and ultimately it opened up an east west passing lane that led to the near goal by Parise on the shot-pass from Kane.
The power play was not the sole reason for the Americans losing this game, but it was the one area in which the US had a ripe opportunity to generate quality scoring chances and they failed to do so.
When the top talented team in the tournament is playing shutdown defense at even strength, make your power plays count. The Americans will now play for Bronze instead of Gold.
Thanks for reading!
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