The Ducks Bold New Power Play Strategy
Notes and observations from Wednesday night at Honda Center
The Anaheim Ducks’ pre-season is in full swing. If nothing else, the exhibition schedule provides observers a glimpse into the minds of the coaching staff. Line combinations, tactical decisions, etc are all on display, indicating how the coaches feel about the tools they have been provided with. Some moves may be purely experimental, others are part of larger trends. Wednesday night at Honda Center added further context and clues.
Wingers Taking Faceoffs?
Nope, not a typo. Head coach Dallas Eakins has stressed in his comments to the media that assistants Newell Brown and Geoff Ward have full autonomy in designing the team’s power play. The matchup against the Coyotes on Wednesday provided one very distinct clue, as Max Comtois and Jakob Silfverberg were tasked with taking offensive zone faceoffs with the man advantage. Comtois — a left shot — took the draws in the left circle, while Silfverberg — a right shot — took the draws in the right circle. With each player on their respective strong sides, they should theoretically have better chances of success.
Now, one might wonder, don’t the Ducks have an actual center in Trevor Zegras who could be taking said draws, instead of feeding wingers to full-time penalty killing centers? The likeliest explanation is that Brown and Ward want Zegras — the point man on that power play unit — to already be at the point when the puck drops. Otherwise, the five-man unit would have to re-configure its formation every time a faceoff is won. The idea here appears to be efficiency — an interesting bet, and overall positive sign that the coaching staff is getting creative to fix what has been a significant team weakness over the last three seasons.
Eakins seemed none too pleased with how the night went at the faceoff dot. He mentioned that winning the draw is absolutely critical for the man advantage, and followed up with, “so for the guys that want to play on the power play, especially if they want to play center…you have to win faceoffs, simple as that”. The final stat line certainly agrees with him: Silfverberg went 0% (1 official attempt, although I saw him take at least 2), and Comtois went 16.67% (5 attempts). His frustration is certainly understandable, but it also feels like expectations should be seriously tempered when you consider that neither player has been a center in their respective NHL careers. Adam Henrique, on the other hand, had a 71.43% success rate. If faceoffs are indeed that important, then maybe he eventually gets inserted into the top unit.
A Top Line Emerges
The Ducks have been sans a bona-fide top forward line in recent seasons. The 2021-22 campaign could finally see a shift in that regard. Comtois and Zegras have been joined at the hip throughout training camp, which makes perfect sense after their hot finish last season. Rickard Rakell seems to be emerging as the favorite to fill in the right wing on that line, as he spent all of Wednesday night with the two youngsters. Although they didn’t get many looks in the offensive zone, they had a couple of clean zone entries, and it was clear that Zegras was constantly looking to get the puck into the slot.
In theory, Anaheim’s new trio has the makings of an effective attacking line. Comtois has shown a finishing flair at the NHL level, and his play-driving ability has shown gradual improvement, which makes him a natural foil for Zegras. There isn’t much tape on Zegras as a full-time NHL center yet, but he’s already shown flashes of brilliance in limited action. Rakell provides the line with the transition ability that Comtois might lack a bit, while giving Zegras another trigger man to feed. The numbers weren’t pretty for that line on the whole (50 CF%, 33.5 xGF%), but there were enough encouraging moments to keep the experiment going.
Final Notes
Josh Mahura had a solid night, drawing a minor penalty at the end of the second period after deftly evading an oncoming defender with a nifty stickhandling maneuver.
Most encouraging on Mahura, however, is that he posted a strong 75.26 xGF% (source: Natural Stat Trick) in 10:52 5v5 minutes next to Josh Manson. The former Regina Pat is waiver eligible this year, meaning the Ducks can’t shuttle him between the minors and the big club without exposing him to waivers. Maybe this is the year he sticks.
Purely from an eye test standpoint, Isac Lundestrom looked really comfortable transitioning the puck through the neutral zone with his skating ability. Lots of competition down the middle for Anaheim, so every moment counts.
Will Tobias Rieder make the team? Tough to say, but he was deployed alongside Eakins’ go-to penalty killer in Derek Grant at times. Something to monitor.