Analysis: Zuccarello to Kaprizov on the Power Play
Last night against the Blackhawks, Kirill Kaprizov scored an excellent one time goal on the power play off a tremendous feed from linemate Mats Zuccarello. Ever since the two have been on a line together the last few years now, the two have only showed so much more chemistry over time, finding each other in really hard situations that many teammates wouldn't dare to try. It is perhaps one of the league's more underrated duos, because we know how good Kaprizov is and how skilled he is, but you don't hear much about Zuccarello anymore particularly because of age and his underrated skill.
However, even though this often gets underestimated in Zuccarello, there's no denying that any time the two play together, they both show up for each other consistently. The other big thing with Zuccarello is that he isn't a massive play driver by any means, as he doesn't put up massive even strength numbers nor power play numbers in terms of pure offensive ability. However, that's ok, since he has Kaprizov as the pure play driver on his line to counteract that. Sometimes, opposites on lines are actually better for the chemistry and growth for the line, since you can gel different styles with higher quality of players. Does Zuccarello make plays? Yes. Does he play at an elite level and generate passes at an elite level? No. Zuccarello also has a really great competitive edge and checking game, allowing him to gain forecheck retrievals to in turn find Kaprizov as much as he can in open ice.
Last night, a prime example of that was shown on this power play sequence in the midst of the Wild's 7-2 win over the Blackhawks:
What is first noticeable here is how Brock Faber draws the high forward to the middle, opening up the flank space for Zuccarello to retrieve this puck and work downhill. An advantage Zuccarello has as a smaller player is using his smaller limbs and more coordination to separate from defenders and create separation space individually. Smaller limbs in a player allows them to move more freely and with more pace in a short time, allowing them to make quicker plays under pressure in certain moments.
On the fake, Zuccarello sells with both his eyes and his stick that he is going to shoot, fooling Seth Jones, yet knowing individually at the same time that he doesn't have a lane to shoot. Using peripheral vision, Zuccarello knows the entire way that he has Kaprizov on the back door, but he doesn't want to make that clear using a few things:
The third component is a major component to this scenario, because excessively stickhandling would disallow Zuccarello to do a few things:
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Zuccarello used a few stickhandles while moving downhill, but as he corralled the puck and was about to execute the pass, he kept the puck directly where it was on his blade. That gave him more efficiency when you really think about it. Essentially, why stickhandle when the puck is already placed in a suitable position on your blade anyway? That was a really smart little detail by Zuccarello here, since that allowed him to find the lane and take advantage of it, even with him essentially given the space to work through by Chicago on the flanks.
What I also notice about this goal, and it almost seemed counterintuitive, but Kaprizov faded entirely away from the play on the weak side. Instead of doing what most would on the weak side and try to move closer to the dangerous area, Kaprizov did the opposite, opening the lane for Zuccarello and allowing himself to lose coverage. All 4 Blackhawks players had their eyes on Zuccarello directly before he made the pass, and Kaprizov was left completely alone. That fade away from the play not only opened that pass lane, but also allowed Kaprizov to have more net to shoot at on his one-timer. That was really effective by Kaprizov overall, and how well he actually was able to execute on the sequence.
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