Power Play and Penalty Kill ?

Question

can a player in the NHL not play at even strengh, but still play on Special Teams like power play and penalty kill ?? if so can you name some players ???

Answer 1

Powerplay specialists are actually quite common. Often, older players or players not quite healthy play on the powerplay, but not on a regular shift, because there is too much skating and bodily contact involved. Some players who have been used like that recently are that come to mind are Peter Forsberg, Eric Lindros, and even Mario Lemieux.

Forsberg is hurt an awful lot, so he wasn't used a lot last year, just mainly in powerplay situations, where he set up down low and just dished out passes.

Lindros is now too slow to keep up with the faster pace of the new NHL. He still has a good shot though and is useful on the powerplay, where he doesn't have to backcheck or skate a lot.

In his last years in the NHL, Lemieux was just a powerplay specialist. He had unbelievable vision and passing ability, but wasn't able to play many minutes or endure a lot of physical contact. So, he was used almost exclusively on the powerplay.

Penalty kill specialists are rare. Almost all good skating 3rd and 4th liners can do it, as they have to be good checkers in most occasions. It's easy to find a good penalty killer, as opposed to a powerplay QB or a player with a 100 mph slap shot, so players who are dressed solely for PK purposes are rare if not non-existant.

Answer 2

It is possible. But you will need to play with 3 regular lines & place your top player on your fourth lines.


A lot of team play like thsi when they dress a tough guy.

Another situation is when a team dress 7 def & 11 forward. There is usaully a def that has some defense issues but really offensive to play on the powerplay.

Answer 3

No. If a player can't play a an even-strength shift, he's definitely not good enough to play on the power-play or penalty kill.

Formerly Suspended Guy
- Last year Forsberg spent 81% of his ice time at even strength. In fact, as his career has progressed, his power-play time has decreased for 8 consecutive years. IN Colorado, he was on the ice for 61% of their power-play time. In Philadelphia it was down to 48%, in Nashville it was down to 36% (That is HIS percentage of ice time of the team's ice time on the power-play).

Lindros decline was even worse, his percentago of ice-time on the power-play in Toronto was 15%, and in Dallas was 3%.

Lemieux's power-play time in his last two years was 19% of his ice-time, and his power-play time was constant at 59%, although in the early 90s he averaged almost 75% of the Penguin's PP ice time, and almost 50% of ice time in general

The rule of thumb has always been the best players on the power-play are the best players at regular-strength. A perusal of the NHL stats database for the last 25 years shows the 1987-88 Calgary Flames as the only exception to this rule. In every other case, the top 5 ice time guys on the power-play are the top guys at regular strength.


Note: I was surprised because everybody believes that Andreychuik had a similar role in Tampa, but less than 25% of his ice time was on the power-play

Answer 4

If your on a hockey team in the NHL than you have a shift , which means you will get ice time during full strength, if a player isnt good enought to play full strenghth any more than they will retire , its not like in football where you bring in a guy just for special teams

Answer 5

Powerplay... as long because of the fact the gang scores in the two:00 of the powerplay, this is seen a helpful PP. The team attempting to kill the penalty (homestead on your venture) ought to score 2 objectives on the PK, yet whilst they permit a purpose, this is a helpful PP because of the fact they did not kill the great penalty

Answer 6

I don't know of any team that carrys a specialist like that ..if you don't skate a regular shift you don't make the team I could be wrong