Philadelphia Flyers Need to Better Deal with the (PK) Pressure
By Marc Naples
The Philadelphia Flyers need to adjust to high pressure penalty kills now being used to shut down their power play, and do it ASAP
For much of the past few seasons, the Philadelphia Flyers were a team carried by their power play. Under Craig Berube, they really struggled to score at 5v5, but had some of the top power play units in the league.
The power play has waivered at times the last year or so, but it’s always been fundamentally good. That’s not too surprising when you have Claude Giroux on the half-boards, and Wayne Simmonds down in front of the net. They also have former NHL star Joe Mullen as the power play mastermind behind the bench.
This year, the power play has had a lot of ups and downs. At the beginning of the season, Jakub Voracek couldn’t buy a goal, after being pretty hot on the power play last year. Eventually Shayne Gostisbehere came along, and gave the Flyers power play a jolt.
Other ups and downs have been the expected streakiness of Simmonds’ scoring, which was offset for a while when Brayden Schenn got hot and became more dangerous in the Scott Hartnell high slot role. When Claude Giroux missed a few games a few weeks back, the first power play unit really fell apart, but at least that was only temporary. Basically, it’s always been something, but now the Flyers are running into their thorniest challenge yet at the worst possible time.
Since the trip down to Florida two weeks ago, they’ve seen much more high pressure PK units. This defensive strategy has wreaked havoc on their zone entries, and so much of their PP time is wasting going up and down the ice. Furthermore, once they have the puck set up, teams come right at Giroux and Gostisbehere. It’s disrupted Giroux’s playmaking, and has significantly cut down on Gostisbehere’s opportunities. For Ghost, I guess that’s what you get when you set records and become the talk of the league: everybody knows you’re coming.
Since that Florida road swing, the Flyers have had 23 power plays. You might be fooled by the fact have 4 power play goals in the 6 games since then, but they all came from the second unit. That means the top unit has not found the net in 6 games and 23+ power play opportunities. Throw in a Marian Hossa shorthanded goal against Chicago, and the top power play unit is -1 over that time frame.
There was some hope that Voracek’s return to the lineup would help the issue. He’s one of their better puck carriers, so he certainly has the tools to help on zone entries. It hasn’t happened. The Philadelphia Flyers power play is 0-7 in his first two games back.
It’s been great that the Flyers are finally getting some balanced scoring. Multiple lines have been scoring goals at even strength, and as mentioned above the second power play unit has come through with some recent goals. None of this excuses a prolonged drought from their bread and butter.
The Philadelphia Flyers need to rectify this issue as soon as possible. Every game counts right now, and all systems need to be “go.” With talents like Claude Giroux, Jakub Voracek, Wayne Simmonds, and Shayne Gostisbehere working at the direction of Joe Mullen, there’s every reason to believe they’ll figure something out.
Maybe they need a specific game plan. Maybe they need some set plays. Either way, they should know what’s coming from the opponents, and they should be ready. Their playoff hopes might depend on it.