After the Pittsburgh Penguins’ latest loss, a 2-1 overtime defeat in Philadelphia on Monday night, a friend shot me a sarcastic text.
“What happens first? Pens score a power play goal? Or Steelers score more than one touchdown in a game?”
I sent a sincere reply.
“Pirates win NLCS.”
OK. Maybe a bit of hyperbole on my part. But I am seriously starting to wonder if the ghosts of Sid Bream will be exorcised before the Penguins ever score on the man-up unit again.
Coach Mike Sullivan’s power play was 0 for 3 (with one total shot on goal) in that regard Monday, extending the club’s drought to 11 straight games without a power play tally. That stretch has featured 29 consecutive empty opportunities.
That’s despite the fact that the team’s power play units can include the likes of Sidney Crosby, Jake Guentzel, Evgeni Malkin, Erik Karlsson, Kris Letang and Bryan Rust.
“I’ve been asked that question a lot recently,” Rust said of the power play. “If I had a really good answer for you, I would give you a really good answer. Everybody who’s on that unit, (has) been on that unit, thinking about that unit, coaching that unit, is really upset with how things are going. We’re trying our best to get going, and things aren’t going. So, we’ve got to just keep working.”
The team’s two consecutive OT losses to the Flyers have been particularly galling through the lens of the power play. Just one man-up goal in eight tries could’ve made the difference between a regulation win against the cross-state rivals and an overtime defeat in both cases.
But the Flyers also got a shorthanded goal in their 4-3 win on Saturday. Monday, they had a pair of glorious chances down a man during a second-period power play for the Penguins. Thankfully, goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic turned both aside, or else the Penguins may not have even picked up a point.
“I think it was a tough one today,” Karlsson said of the power play. “We’ve got to find a way to break them down over the course of time and take what is given to us. We’ve got to find ways to create it for ourselves. That correlates into the power play. If we have the puck for two minutes, we should create a lot more than we do. … Right now, I think we’re just a little bit too antsy to try and create something out of nothing.”
The Penguins are now at 10.5% on the power play, 30th in the NHL. That’s an embarrassment, given the amount of talent the Penguins possess when skating up a man.
But it appears that the Penguins’ issues on the power play aren’t about skill or talent. Maybe there is just too much of that on the ice. There isn’t enough of a simple shot-first mentality. There isn’t enough size, grit and presence in front of the net. There is too much emphasis on specific timing, movement and precision passing.
Sullivan said this following the loss in Philadelphia. He was speaking about the team’s approach in the offensive zone in general. But the point resonates when discussing the Penguins’ lack of power play success.
“You’ve got to put pucks at the net,” Sullivan said. “You’ve got to have off-net sticks to create different avenues to get pucks to the net. And you’ve got to try to go bang in rebounds. They’re not highlight reel goals.”
Yeah. That’s an old message. And one that only the fans and media that cover the team seem to hear and understand.
But the players sure aren’t following the advice. The new management team hasn’t had the time or cap space to acquire a true net-front presence, and the coaches can’t seem to get the stubborn veteran players to change their ways.
That’s if the coaches are even trying to imprint those changes in the first place.
I’m dubious that they are.
And I’m dubious about the prospect of seeing another Penguins power play goal any time before Matt Canada gets another job as an offensive coordinator in the NFL.
Listen: Tim Benz and Brian Metzer discuss the Penguins’ power play and the losses to Philadelphia in this week’s hockey podcast
