Watch the Capitals, Leafs or Jets power play and it’s puck poetry as the disc moves quickly around the umbrella and players connect with one-timers that find the back of the net on a regular basis.
Then you watch the Blackhawks power play and not only does it rarely generate a quality chance, many times the opposition gets a shot on goal, or at the very least momentum swings in their favor.
The Blackhawks are currently ranked 30th in the NHL on the power play and have converted on only five of 41 opportunities. A look at the current standings and the top four teams in the East (Toronto, Tampa Bay, Boston, Pittsburgh) all have power plays that rank in the top 10. The final four teams in last season's Stanley Cup Playoffs all had power plays that ranked in the top 11 (Tampa was third, Winnipeg fifth, Washington seventh and Vegas was 11th). Having a potent power play in this current NHL seems to play a bigger role in a team's success than ever before.
It’s actually incredible the Blackhawks are 6-3-3 without getting much help from the man advantage. How can a team be among the league leaders in even strength goals, but take a player away from the opposition and somehow it gets more difficult to score?
While the Blackhawks have been looking for answers to this problem, we have spent countless podcasts debating the issue with Adam Burish, Jamal Mayers and Steve Konroyd. The guys have suggested: loading up on one unit, shoot first mentality, try a different entry, more net front presence. I could keep going, but you get the idea.
The Blackhawks were back to work on Tuesday spending extra time on the man advantage. Don Granato was working with the first unit which consisted of Patrick Kane, Nick Schmaltz, Artem Anisimov, Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook. Kevin Dineen had the second unit: Jonathan Toews, Brandon Saad, Alex DeBrincat, Luke Johnson and Erik Gustafsson.
Joel Quenneville discussed the power play struggles.
NHL
“I would say we're not starting off with the puck enough either off the faceoff or we're not getting early entries that are having some success so it's a little disrupted right off the bat,” he said.
Patrick Kane says puck retrieval on the man advantage could improve.
"I think we could do a better job of recovering those pucks off the shot and then maybe plays will open up for us after that," Kane said. “I think the biggest thing for us, even if we're not scoring, let's try to get some momentum off it. Let's try to get some shots, try to recover some pucks, have some zone time. ... The more emotion we have, the more we're playing loose and free, I think the better off it'll be.”