Sheng Peng
You know what they say about the best-laid plans?
Just one game into the season, the San Jose Sharks have been forced to change up their power play.
Going into the year, the Sharks wanted to try out a five-forward PP1.
Mikael Granlund, stepping into what’s typically a defenseman’s role, was the point man. Left-handers Anthony Duclair and Mike Hoffman occupied the left and right flanks, respectively. Alexander Barabanov took the bumper and Tomas Hertl played net front.
But then, Granlund re-aggravated a training camp lower-body injury during Thursday’s season-opener. He was put on IR, and will miss at least a week, potentially more.
Good thing, Hoffman has played the point on a five-forward power play before.
And in Granlund’s absence, he’s going to get that chance again. Hoffman will man the point tonight against the Colorado Avalanche with William Eklund on the left flank, Duclair on the right side, Barabanov bumper, and Hertl net front.
Last season, Hoffman, then with the Montreal Canadiens quarterbacked a five-forward power play, along with Cole Caulfield, Nick Suzuki, Kirby Dach, and either Sean Monahan or Evgenii Dadonov.
So what’s different about playing the power play point for a forward? Both Hoffman and Granlund weighed in on that question during camp.
For what it’s worth, hockey tactics guru Jack Han suggested Hoffman as his ideal PP1 pointman for the San Jose Sharks in the off-season.
“Hoffman is a guy who has good vision and a good shot,” he said.
He’s also a proven power play asset: From 2014 to 2021, Hoffman, who scored at a 30-goal full season pace in that period of time, was eighth in the NHL with 66 PP goals.
So if anybody understands what needs to be done to succeed on the man advantage, it’s Hoffman.
“You’re more of a passer, playing the top as a quarterback, dishing out the puck and breaking the puck out as opposed to on the flanks. Those are more so your shooters,” Hoffman said during camp, about playing the power play point. “Playing the back-end, you can’t be as risky as maybe you can on the half-wall. Because if anything bad happens, it’s possibly a breakaway goal another way. As opposed to when you lose the puck on the half-wall, it’s still one-on-one with some back pressure.”
Granlund, on Oct. 4, echoed Hoffman. In fact, the day before, Granlund had asked Hoffman about his experience manning the power play point.o
“It’s a lot of passing, and obviously, up top, you can kind of decide where the puck is going,” Granlund said, adding, “If you have a chance to shoot, you gotta try to get it to the net. It’s more about understanding where to move, where’s the open space.”
Hoffman, known primarily as a shooter, has underrated vision.
“On the flank, you’re sometimes like you gotta give [the puck] to me,” Granlund, who’s usually occupied the flank on the man advantage, said. “You’re kind of fighting [the other flank].”
Besides distributing the puck, Hoffman’s other big job will be to go back into the zone to get the puck and carry it out.
“Obviously, it’s a little different for a forward to go back there,” he said. “But you kind of get the feel of it, and then it’s okay.”
For what it’s worth, between Duclair and Barabanov, Hoffman should have plenty of speed and puck savvy coming up from behind him to pull off a controlled drop pass entry with regularity.
And most importantly, Hoffman, like Granlund, is a top offensive mind. Wherever you play on the power play, it’s all academic.
“At the end of the day,” Granlund said, “it’s just playing with your instincts.”