Succeeding While Shorthanded in CHL Hockey

Originally published in Prospects Hockey in 2005

By Lucas Aykroyd

In most areas of life, wasting time is not a virtue. If it’s your job to take out the garbage, wash the car, or finish a report, you’re just supposed to get on with it. However, in terms of succeeding while shorthanded, hockey coaches elevate wasting time to a fine art.

What’s the best strategy for killing off those pesky two-minute minors and those aggravating five-minute majors? Christian LaRue, head coach of the QMJHL’s Moncton Wildcats, said it’s pretty simple: “Humble coaches will agree that first of all, it takes good goaltending.” Humility must be one of Kevin Constantine’s virtues, as the bench boss of the WHL’s Everett Silvertips told Prospects Hockey the very same thing. Both men’s teams consistently deliver top-ranked penalty-killing.

So if your goalie thwarts every power play attempt, you’ve got no worries. But usually it takes a group effort. “We try to deny passing lanes and shooting lanes, and to limit time and space available,” said LaRue. “We also make adjustments based on the other side’s skills, and your own team’s skills obviously affect your approach.”

Constantine surprised many observers by guiding the expansion Silvertips to the WHL finals versus Medicine Hat last year. Lacking a talent-laden roster, Everett couldn’t have prospered without great shorthanded play, and it starts with being smart during the other team’s power play breakout.

“We sit back a little bit and conserve energy,” Constantine said. “We let the other team have the puck until they’re near the red line and then we get very aggressive. Taking less of a forechecking approach leaves us with more energy in our own end.”

Of course, other clubs may prefer to disrupt their opponents with a vigorous forecheck. It’s just a matter of what works for your team.

Playing a solid four-man box is the way to go when the opposition is controlling the puck. According to Constantine, recommended times to depart from that formation are when opponents turn their backs to you, when there’s a rebound or a bouncing puck, when a puck rimmed around the boards looks hard to handle, or when the puck is brought into a dangerous scoring area. If your players just watch passively, you won’t gain possession, and you might get scored on.

Life gets more complicated when you’re defending a 5-on-3 situation. Penalty-killers can’t run around or they’ll open up all kinds of scoring chances. “We really, really protect our slot,” said LaRue. “If a team wants to score on us 5-on-3, we’ll force them to go with a laser shot from outside the slot, and if they score, so be it. We just want to keep the puck on the perimeter.”

Killing off a penalty or surrendering a shorthanded goal creates a momentum swing in the hockey game. So it’s vital for a coach to choose the right penalty-killers. “We look for guys who have sound defensive fundamentals,” Constantine said. “That means a work ethic, a willingness to block shots, and really good use of the stick, because a stick is a wonderful tool for taking away passing lanes and shots. You want guys with personality, guys who enjoy shutting down another team’s better players.”

Physical attributes are also important. “I like using players who have a high maximum VO2,” said LaRue, referring to the aerobic energy measured in fitness testing. “A guy can be on for 20 or 35 seconds, and it’s not as if the 35th second is less important than the first five. You need endurance and a quick recovery time. Sometimes I have two or three rotations of my penalty-killing forwards, and it may be your turn again extremely quickly. Your conditioning must be top-notch.”

Sometimes bigger is better for the Wildcats. “I like defensemen with size and reach playing on the PK,” LaRue added. “You occasionally have question marks about whether size limits mobility or agility or puckhandling, but our general approach is to go with bigger guys who can cover important areas with their sticks. We try to make our guys like a wall.”

Goalies can contribute more than just making saves. If blessed with good faceoff men, they can freeze the puck frequently and disrupt the rhythm the opposing power play is building. Or on shoot-ins, they can take an active role if they have Martin Brodeur-like stick skills. “I worked with Marc Denis in Chicoutimi, and he was very dominant in puckhandling,” LaRue recalled. “We used a special forecheck that forced the other team to dump the puck in, and Marc would just stop it and shoot it out himself.”

In more ways than one, a good penalty-killing club can be extremely frustrating to play against. If you use savvy speedsters like the 1995 Pavel Bure-Russ Courtnall tandem with the Vancouver Canucks, you can get your share of shorthanded goals.

“The secret to trying to score shorthanded is to pick the right time in the game, and perhaps to take advantage if the other team has a forward on the point who’s less adept defensively,” said Constantine. “You just can’t cheat or take high risks.”

And dumping the puck down the ice isn’t the only safe penalty-killing strategy. If you have a talented defense pairing, such as Jonathan Girard and Francois Beauchemin with Chicoutimi in 1999-2000, they may be able to kill even more time by passing the puck back and forth between each other. Again, it’s whatever works.

Ultimately, it’s tough for a coach to win a championship with a lousy penalty kill. Great goaltending may be the key, but a committed, intelligent strategy implemented by the penalty-killing skaters is also essential.

Just ask Kevin Constantine, who saw the PK excellence of Selke Trophy winner John Madden up close when he coached New Jersey. Just ask Christian LaRue, whose Wildcats hope to parlay their consistent CHL Top-10 ranking into a Memorial Cup title with strong shorthanded play.

Yes, penalty-killing. It’s time well wasted.