Craig Berube Makes A Significant Change To His Top Power Play Unit

Saturday's game between Toronto and Tampa Bay will see the long-awaited return of Auston Matthews after a nine-game absence and Matthew Knies comes back as well. With their return however, Craig Berube is trying a new method to bring more offense to their power play according to Luke Fox of Sportsnet.

Craig Berube is trying out a five-forward system for his power play, trying to overload the opposition and give Toronto a chance to pile on the goals. But will it succeed?

If Craig Berube wanted to utilize five forwards on his power play he certainly has a precedent. Toronto Toronto employed the system in early 2023,, and saw a measure of success.

It comes with the reward of piling on goals when your opponent is down one or two men and being able to capitalize on those chances is crucial to not only regular season but playoff success.

So far, this season has seen Toronto go from under 10% on the powerplay at the end of October to sitting 16th at 20.3%. It's a huge turnaround that may have saved Marc Savard his job as well.

Toronto can afford to throw their heavy artillery at their opponents in the hopes of trying to score because they have so many capable stars. Besides Auston Matthews, they have Matthew Knies, Mitch Marner, John Tavares, William Nylander and Bobby McMann (who is injured).

If your goal is to well, score goals then loading up your first unit to get one as quickly as possible is a great idea.

However, there also come some extra risks. With five forwards, a typically offensive player can find themselves backtracking into their zone if they miss an errant puck and it could lead to a lot more shorthanded opportunities.

Toronto started the year with an atrocious power play and ended up becoming at least respectable in that department. Marc Savard's been able to make something out of nothing, and this is one way for Toronto to try and keep that power play momentum rolling.

In closing, Craig Berube used a five-forward power play in practice to try and bring even more strength into an already strong special teams unit, and putting his stars together to make it happen feels like a recipe for success for Berube.