Rebels aim to fire up flickering power play
The Red Deer Rebels coaching staff continues to work on a remedy for a sore spot with the club this season.
The Rebels’ power play has been less than powerful through most of the season. In fact, the team’s success rate for extra-man play is 19.8 per cent, 20th best in the WHL. The club had scored just once in its last 22 power play opportunities.
As a result, the coaches are spending a certain amount of practice time trying to find solutions for the team’s ailing man advantage attack.
“We are right now, it’s been a staple of what we’re doing (in practice),” head coach Dave Struch said Thursday.
“One of the big things for us in recreating the identity here is having good special teams. The guys have been working hard, whether they’re battling or executing reps with puck touches or defending the right way, checking the right way.
“Our special teams have been a staple every day, working on it (power play) for 15 to 20 minutes. We don’t always have to score on it but it’s a momentum builder for us that we want to have as an asset going into our games.”
The Rebels are 3-0 since Struch took over behind the bench with all three victories coming over the Calgary Hitmen. The Rebels are one-for-seven on the power play during that stretch, with the lone extra man tally coming in a 4-3 win March 8 at Calgary.
Following the game, Struch made the point that the man advantage units were often in sync and had some good looks despite coming up empty on three occasions, giving the club extra energy in the process.
“So as much importance as you put on it, we don’t always have to score,” he reiterated. “But we want to see us getting better at it because you never know when that big goal is going to come.
“We hope that our special teams, especially our power play, be that important for us.”
Key details of the power play involve positioning and puck movement, among others.
“Playing fast, being able to move the puck well . . . the puck moves faster than the man,” said Struch. “You want to be able to execute those plays but more importantly we can’t forget that there’s another team out there, and whether they’re blocking shots, making saves, clearing pucks, that puck retrieval becomes our second option.
“That option has to be our puck possession so what we do off of our first, second and third opportunities to get the puck back is just as important as anything else.”
Fortunately the Rebels’ penalty kill has been effective this season. The team is sixth overall with a 79.7 per cent success rate.
“You have to be willing to block shots, sacrifice your body, but also be willing to compete to get to the loose pucks,” said Struch. “We talk about puck retrieval on our power play, but you reciprocate that on the penalty kill.
“Our ability to get to pucks first, to make the good decisions to get the puck 200 fee to kill more time on the penalty kill . . . that becomes a really big momentum builder for us as well.
“Allowing our goalie to see the puck to make that save and then what we do after that save with that loose puck rebound . . . again, it’s all of the little details and the attention to those details that are important.”
Notable: The Rebels engage the Lethbridge Hurricanes in a two-game set this weekend, Friday in Lethbridge and Saturday at the Peavey Mart Centrium . . . Red Deer will be minus five players against the ‘Canes, with Frantisek Formanek (upper body), Carson Latimer (upper body), Elias Carmichael (lower body) and Quentin Bourne (lower body) all listed as week-to-week. As well, defenceman Luke Vlooswyk has been returned to the Edge U18 Prep team for the Canadian Sport School Hockey League playoff tournament . . . The Rebels will visit Swift Current Wednesday and conclude their regular season schedule with two games versus the Edmonton Oil Kings the following weekend — Saturday (March 23) at the Centrium and Sunday up in the provincial capital.
(Photo by Taylor Lachance)
