Penguins' power-play drop pass meets its demise, more preseason thoughts

Erik Karlsson — Photo via AP

The Penguins’ power play wasn’t the utter train wreck it was made out to be a season ago. It just felt that way due to finishing struggles and a fundamentally-flawed breakout design.

That breakout design, characterized by a persistent reliance on telegraphing drop passes, required significant modification before this season.

While the drop pass was initially a clever wrinkle to power-play breakouts when adopted by NHL teams, the Penguins' continued use of it last season was maligned for valid reasons.

As one of my Twitter followers, David, astutely put it: It’s not that the drop pass is an inherently bad play, it just can’t be successful if everyone’s expecting it.

Opposing penalty-kills anticipated the drop pass every time, affording no respect to the initial puck carrier as they moved up the ice. Why would they?

It didn’t matter if a Penguins skater had a clean, straight-ahead lane to gain the offensive blue line. Drop pass.

Erik Karlsson’s talent alone was never going to completely rectify the power play. The question, which I posed last month, was whether or not his arrival would prompt tactical changes.

The Penguins have played just one preseason game with all of their lineup regulars so far (a 3-1 victory over the Sabres at PPG Paints Arena on Thursday), but it seems the drop pass has met its demise.