A Deeper Look Into The Pride’s Power Play

The Boston Pride are off to an electric start to the season, winning three straight and posting a 4-2 record a month into the season. But going into the weekend against an undefeated Toronto Six team that stands only one point behind the Pride with three games in hand, Paul Mara’s team is looking to get stronger in order to hand the Six their first loss of the season. The area of Boston’s game that most obviously needs improvement if they hope to maintain first place is the power play. 

Currently at a league worst 1-for-28 on the power play, the Pride have gotten more chances on the player advantage than anyone else but failed to capitalize. They’ve also had 2 short handed goals against (although, in fairness, they’re the only team to have played the Minnesota Whitecaps, who are the most dangerous team in the league on the penalty kill.) A six game sample size is a very small one to judge special teams on, but in a 20 game season, there isn’t a lot of time to wait. The Pride’s forward group is full of some of the league's best scorers and promising rookies, MVP candidates and winners and record breakers. Why has there been trouble getting them on the board on the power play? 

Taking Penalties on the Power Play

This problem is obvious, but just this past weekend against the Whitecaps alone there were five different occasions where the Pride took a penalty when on the power play. The most notable mistake of this problem was during the 2-0 loss to the Whitecaps, where the Pride had a 5 minute power play off a Alex Woken major for elbowing but gave up a shorthanded goal and then took two consecutive penalties to give the Whitecaps a 4-on-3 advantage. Four of the five penalties taken during the player advantage were by defenders, which relates to the next point.

Pressure on Defense

The Pride’s power play depends mainly on point shots getting deflected or players starting on the perimeter and collapsing into the slot. They are a little unusual in that, for the most part, they don’t run a typical 1-3-1 with a player in the bumper, and frequently opt to have two defenders on the power play instead of four forwards and one defender. With offensive threats like Fratkin, Souliotis, and Boulier on the back end, it’s not hard to see the logic behind the decision. All three are defenders who are creative offensively and have no problem attacking the net if the situation call for it, but the only time they've been able to really show those skills on the power play thus far is off the rush when they can get a quick re-entry. Otherwise, they’ve been mostly pinned to the perimeter due to aggressive penalty killing, neutralizing them and taking advantage of the fact that Boston Pride defenders are often playing their off-side on the power play. 

Here is a play at the blue line at the beginning of the Woken five minute major

The Pride were able to recover, this time, but later a similar mistake led to Jonna Curtis’ shorthanded goal. Here is the play right before the goal

Cross-Seam Passes

A few aspects of the Pride’s power play has made defenders flanking and making a cross-seam pass the go to move for the power play, and one that is easily thwarted by penalty killers. Aforementioned pressure on defense is one reason, as defenders are then limited on options and have to make quicker, more panicked decisions. The absence of a player in the bumper position is another reason, as it takes away more creative passes, and gives the penalty killers more opportunity to break up a pass. Additionally, the three Pride defenders that stay down low on the power play don’t rotate with any real purpose other than puck retrieval and getting rebounds on point shots, which are good things, but makes plays predictable. One example can be seen here:

Souliotis is under pressure from Laing, with Rosenthal closing in on her to take away the shot and limit her movement. The player on the lower left side and the defender on the upper right side are non options, or at least not ones that present any danger, so the Whitecaps defenders can focus on deflecting either the cross seam pass or shot to the front of the net.  

Another example can be shown here, with a cleaner pass, but still the same problems. The pass is easily defended by the Whitecaps defenders who know that Putigna’s only option to get a quality shot on net with her next pass is to make a cross seam pass, with the other Pride players either up at the point or below the net. The entire slot is clear as well as the front of the net, making the puck easy for Leveille to track if the pass did go through. 

Results and Looking Forward

The most important result is goals scored, but the problems plaguing the Pride’s power play are evident elsewhere. Courtesy of InStat, this shot chart displays the lack of activity in the slot for the Boston Pride’s power play. The area with the most shot attempts is at the center of the blue line, where only three shots have actually made it through and is an area of the ice that presents the lowest danger. 

Data courtesy of InStat

The Pride have plenty of talented offensive minds, but they will need to play to their strengths if they want their power play to be effective against the Six this weekend. Currently, the top power play unit for the pride consists of three left handed forwards (Davis, Brand, Dempsey) and two right handed defenders (Fratkin and Boulier.) The combination is perfectly fine, but only if the unit designs plays and rotates/creates movement with that in mind. Additionally, while the Pride don’t have to do a traditional 1-3-1 formation on the power play, they do need to get more activity in the slot and create more chaos to make their movements less predictable. 

Data and Video courtesy of InStat