The Columbus Blue Jackets powerplay has been humming this season. They are currently sitting at 4th overall, scoring at a 24.3% clip. If they can keep that up, this would be the deadliest CBJ powerplay ever, as well as their top finish (records held by last years 11th place finish at 19.3%). So what has changed since last year? A lot. The personal hasn’t changed too much, but how they have been able to deploy that personnel has opened up more options, and allowed the powerplay to be more diverse. For all the things that RJ Umberger wasn’t good at, he was a pretty good net front presence on the powerplay. But that is Nick Foligno‘s job now, and he’s obviously flourished there. The other major components are Ryan Johansen, James Wisniewski, Jack Johnson, and the new member Scott Hartnell. It’s that last name that really opens up what the Jackets can do.
The always awesome Justin Bourne over at The Score wrote a very detailed post on the Flyers powerplay and how Hartnell fit into it. I highly recommend reading that post, as it helps shed some light on the Jackets powerplay this year. Hartnell is the master of the high slot on the powerplay. His presence there really helps open things up. Where the Blue Jackets powerplay this year exceeds the Flyers powerplay from a year ago is with James Wisniewski. Here’s the Jackets general setup and positioning on the powerplay.
If you compare that to the shots of the Flyers setup, you’ll see Ryan Johansen in the Claude Giroux role, Nick Foligno as Wayne Simmonds, Scott Hartnell as Scott Hartnell, and Jack Johnson as Kimmo Timonen. Now I would put those four guys as more or less of a wash, if not in each matchup, then at least in aggregate. The difference is Jakub Voracek versus James Wisniewski. Obviously, I can’t take away too much from Voracek. He’s a great player, and one I think all Blue Jacket fans would love to still have in Columbus. But he’s not a great fit for the role he was playing. The Flyers ran the powerplay from Giroux’s side of the ice, with Hartnell for shots, Timonen for point shots, Simmonds for tip-ins, and Voracek for the weakside one-timer. That isn’t his strength. The one-timer is the strength of James Wisniewski, although he does shoot the wrong hand for it to be just that simple. How it does change things up is when Wisniewski and Johnson switch positions, opening up the one-timer to Wisniewski from Johnson (who then fills the weakside shooter role).
In the past, the powerplay was built around Wisniewski’s shot, but that isn’t entirely the case anymore. Now there isn’t one element any more important than the other. Here’s the same screenshot with different options depending on where the puck is.
I realize that is a lot of arrows (solid is skating, dashes are passes, dots are shots), but bear with me as I go through them player by player. Johansen has the option of passing to Hartnell for the one-timer if the box is loose enough (1), or Hartnell can one-touch the puck back to Johansen. If he isn’t being pressured, he can walk in and take a shot (2), with Foligno screening in front. Or he can pass the puck to Johnson (3). When Johnson gets it, he can one-time it immediately, if it’s there (4). Or he can hold it, and move it back to Johansen (5), who can then either one-time it, or go back into his earlier options. Johnson can also work with Wisniewski. The big option is for Johnson to skate backwards (6), and draw the box apart, while Wiz fills the space (7), faces Johnson’s pass (8) and launches a one-timer (9). Johnson can also just pass the puck down to Wiz (10). From here, Wiz can shoot the puck (11), or he can start to walk in and look for the shot (12), or the pass to Johnson (13) or backdoor to Johansen (14). In most of these situations, you still have Foligno and Hartnell screening the shot, and in place to jump on rebounds.
So how do you defend that. If you defend Hartnell in the slot, that means either a defenseman higher up, leaving Foligno more or less untouched in front, or the forward high, allowing Johnson and Wiz space to maneuver. If you take away the points, it creates a wide box, which allows for the shot from Hartnell, or space for Johansen to walk in and take his own shot. If you tighten the box, you take away Hartnell and any lanes for Johansen to walk into, but you are vulnerable at the point, and you give Wiz space to walk in on the weakside. The Jackets can even trick opponents into tightening the box by making quick passes from Johansen to Hartnell, back to Johansen. If you over load on the strong side, you give Wisniewski space to operate, which allows him to walk in for shots, and makes your penalty killer have to move a lot. Moving penalty killers creates space, and it’s especially dangerous here, as that space means Wisniewski with either lanes to shoot, or lanes to pass to Johansen for a backdoor one-timer, Hartnell for a tip-shot in the slot, or Johnson for a one-timer from the point. That’s a lot to handle, and it’s unpredictable. There isn’t one option listed that is significantly better than the rest. If a team focuses on taking away one, then another can burn them. Here’s the clip the above screenshots are from.
In this situation, the Bruins are keeping two guys tight in front while being very careful to take away Wisniewski’s on the weakside. Any pass by Johnson to Wiz would have immediately shut him down. He wouldn’t be able to get a shot off, and he wouldn’t be able to walk in either. They are also aggressively forcing Johnson. My guess on this strategy is to try and keep the powerplay contained to one side. I have talked many times in the past about the value of getting a goalie moving side-to-side, and the Bruins were looking to avoid this. What it does though is bring up just an absolute cavern of space for Johansen to work with. Foligno smartly slides down to provide a tip option, while Hartnell moves down into the primary screener location (who can also tip). The Bruins do take away the Wisniewski and Johnson options, although Johansen probably could have snuck a pass in tight to Wiz.
To digress some, the clip cuts it off but this play opens with Johansen passing the puck into Hartnell, who passes it back out, in an attempt to tighten the box and get the Bruins moving. This creates the space to pass to Johnson, which keeps the Bruins moving to open the cavern of space for Johansen to walk into and score.
The powerplay is all about breaking down the defenders and forcing them to make choices. With only four players on the ice, the opposing team can only take away so much. In the past, shutting down James Wisniewski’s point shot, and not allowing Ryan Johansen space could derail the entire powerplay. Those are not easy things to do, which is why the Jackets powerplay finished 11th last year. The addition of Scott Hartnell creates a box-splitting presence which forces teams to either tighten up and open up the point, or take away the points and provide space for Hartnell and Johansen to do their thing. We’ve seen two Johansen goals in the past few games (this one versus Boston and one versus Montreal) that he never would have had the space to do last year. The added options Hartnell provides has turned a good powerplay into a borderline great one, currently sitting with the 10th best percentage of the last twenty years.
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