Pressure, discipline and goaltending power hot stretch for Ducks penalty kill

IRVINE, Calif. – Over the previous two seasons, the Anaheim Ducks’ penalty kill was nothing short of atrocious.

The Ducks were second-to-last in the NHL in each of the last two seasons with kill rates of 72.4% and 72.1%. Anaheim’s 91 power play goals against last season were the most allowed in the league.

This season, while the overall kill rate is only slightly up to 26th in the NHL at 75%, the Ducks are on an upward spike with a man down.

Anaheim was 29th in the league on the penalty kill on Nov. 16, but over their last seven games, the Ducks have allowed just one power play goal against in 19 opposing power plays attempts. Ottawa scored on a two-man advantage on Sunday to snap a streak of 15 consecutive goalless penalty kills, but the Ducks killed three of four shorthanded attempts.

It’s no coincidence that the Ducks are 4-2-1 over those seven games.

There are three factors to the uptick on the penalty kill overall, and particularly in this stretch: pressure play, goaltending and number of penalties taken.

“I think we were a little too passive in the early going of the season,” said Isac Lundeström, who leads Ducks forwards in penalty kill ice time. “I think we had a good position, but we gave them a little too much time. Good players are really good with good time.”

Anaheim was plagued over the last two seasons by seam passes through the middle of their four-man box to tire penalty killers and goaltenders, and the passive style allowed for more zone time for the power play.

This season, the Ducks implemented a diamond formation–one man low, two on the flanks, one man high–on the penalty kill to cut down those seam passes, and over this last stretch, the team has upped its pressure along the flanks for force turnovers and quick clears.

“I think (assistant coach) Brent Thompson’s done a great job just communicating what they call ‘route discipline’ and what your job is,” Ducks coach Greg Cronin said. “When you have the discipline to do your job on the PK, particularly where teams are doing diamonds, I think it makes everyone’s job easy, and then it puts some onus on the defenseman to figure out where the two-on-one might be at the goalline.”

There’s always going to be an odd-man situation somewhere on the penalty kill, such is the nature of a man-advantage, but a good penalty kill is able to dictate where that particular disadvantage will be and react to it.

In the diamond, that disadvantage is down low in the corners, where either the bottom-point defenseman or flanking forward has to make a decision to commit and the rest of the penalty killers must react accordingly to fill in the gaps.

“I think it was understanding our roles and where we could pressure,” defenseman Brian Dumoulin said, “and where our outs were going to be and where the pressure points are and whether its going to be a D that initiates or a forward that initiates, because once you pressure, everyone’s got to be on the same page. It can’t just be one person. 

“If they’re going to beat us, they’re going to have to make two or three good plays. So, we’re just more on the same page with pressure.”

In addition to quickly negating plays along the walls, the diamond formation and the dial-up of pressure has made life a little easier on the Ducks goaltending tandem of Lukáš Dostál and John Gibson.

The pressure has kept shots further away, and the diamond has cut down on one-timers across the zone.

“You talk to the goalies and how they don’t want the seam-to-seam and the back-and-forth,” Lundeström said. “I think it’s easier on us and them to have shots from one direction, instead of coming from everywhere. I think we’ve done a good job on that in the diamond. When we get tired, too, we’ve been good to come back in the house.”

Still the shots are going to get through, and the adage remains true that a team’s best penalty killer is its goaltender.

Even during this hot streak for the penalty kill, Anaheim is still in the bottom 10 of shots and shot attempts allowed shorthanded. However, Dostál has remained in the top quarter of the league in penalty kill save % (.946) and goals saved above expected (1.9). 

While his sample size is smaller with his late start to the season, Gibson is in the top half of the league’s goalies on the penalty kill with a .923 save % and a 0.0 goals saved above expected.

The final and most important key to a good penalty kill? Not being on the penalty kill.

Last season, Anaheim led the league in times shorthanded per game with over four power plays against per game. The Ducks were fifth-worst in the league two seasons ago at 3.41 times shorthanded per game.

This year, Anaheim is just 24th in the league in times shorthanded per game at 2.78 power plays against, and the Ducks even have a positive special-team attempts margin with 3.04 power plays for per game, good for 15th in the league.

“You can see the teams that win that special teams battle usually gives you the best chance to win the game,” Dumoulin said. “We’ve been taking less penalties, so it’s easier to kill two or three of them. When you’re getting to four and five, there’s a bit more wear and power play guys are feeling it a little bit more.”

Anaheim hasn’t faced the cream of the NHL power play crop over this seven-game stretch, with only Ottawa (third) and Chicago (10th) appearing in the top 20. 

Still, the Ducks are developing more disciplined habits in staying out of the box and in their penalty killing lanes as the building blocks of the future continue to be laid.