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The Philadelphia Flyers need more out of their power play unit

By Benjamin Gabrych

PHILADELPHIA, PA - NOVEMBER 27: Goaltender Mike McKenna #33 of the Ottawa Senators makes a blocker save as Chris Tierney #71 and Thomas Chabot #72 defend against Sean Couturier #14 and Travis Konecny #11 of the Philadelphia Flyers on November 27, 2018 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Len Redkoles/NHLI via Getty Images)
PHILADELPHIA, PA - NOVEMBER 27: Goaltender Mike McKenna #33 of the Ottawa Senators makes a blocker save as Chris Tierney #71 and Thomas Chabot #72 defend against Sean Couturier #14 and Travis Konecny #11 of the Philadelphia Flyers on November 27, 2018 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Len Redkoles/NHLI via Getty Images) /
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The Philadelphia Flyers power play unit has looked horrific at times this year and need to start living up to their pre-season expectations.

There’s no denying that the Philadelphia Flyers have struggled mightily with their special teams play this season. The problems on the penalty-kill were somewhat expected as the team didn’t really make any moves to help improve their shorthanded performance, but the power-play is a much different story.

After finishing 15th in the league in power-play percentage last season, now former General Manager Ron Hextall made a big acquisition this past offseason to try and make the average unit better by signing forward James van Riemsdyk to a five year deal. 20 of van Riemsdyk’s 54 points point the year prior came on the man advantage and his addition was supposed to make the top unit more lethal while also adding more depth to their ever-struggling second unit as well.

Now 25 games into the 2018-19 season, things could not be more opposite. The Flyers currently rank 27th among NHL teams in power-play percentage with 15.07% and are also second to last in total power-play goals with 11. That total is just one goal ahead of Winnipeg Jets forward Patrik Laine, who leads the NHL in power play goals scored with 10 on the year.

Yes, you read that correctly. The entire Flyers power-play unit has just one more goal than the league leader in power-play goals, which is just flat out pathetic. Yes, Laine is superbly talented, but one player shouldn’t nearly outscore both of your five man units this far into the year.

Philadelphia has the talent to be better, too, even if you take van Riemsdyk out of the equation. Claude Giroux, Jakub Voracek, Wayne Simmonds, and Shayne Gostisbehere have all proved throughout the years that they can absolutely dominate with an extra man, so what gives?

Well, they haven’t been able to generate a lot of shots compared to other teams around the league. The Flyers are tied 11th worst in the league in Shots-For on the power-play with 117. You can’t score if you don’t shoot, and it’s been evident that the Flyers choose to make the extra pass instead of just shooting at times this season. I’m all for making said extra pass to generate more dangerous of a scoring chance, but sometimes it’s better to shoot to create a rebound attempt off of the opposing goaltender instead of possibly turning the puck over with a tough pass.

Next. Travis Konecny has been red-hot for the Flyers recently. dark

It’s clear the Flyers need to figure things out sooner rather than later. They’ve tried changing up the personnel on both of their units already and have failed to produce better results in doing so. The pressure is on Assistant Coach Kris Knoblauch to right this ship, because goals are going to get harder to come by as the season rolls on.

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