Breaking Down The Flyers Recent Power Play Woes

The Philadelphia Flyers man-advantage unit has been nothing short of underwhelming recently, so what’s been the issue?

When in the 2019-20 campaign was in its’ earliest stages, almost all was going right for the Philadelphia Flyers when it came to power-play production. The group tied for fourth in the entire league in Power-Play Goals with 13 in the first 15 games of the year and were well on their way to having a great special teams unit as the penalty-kill was also holding their own in the defensive zone during that time. Since then, the Flyers man advantage has found twine just six times, dropping to just below league average in Power-Play Percentage with 18.10% in 105 opportunities. That’s quite the dip in productivity, so what’s exactly happened to Michel Therrien’s once-promising group?

Well, the answer is fairly simple: Philadelphia’s lack of scoring chance-creation has seemingly caught up to them. Through those aforementioned first 15 games, the Flyers possessed the 11th lowest Scoring Chances For total with 61 and tied for the same position with the Detroit Red Wings in High Danger Scoring Chances For with 26, according to Natural Stat Trick. Those numbers haven’t grown in the contests since, either, as they rank dead last in SCF with 41 and third-last in HDCF with 15 from November 7th until now. Philly’s also seen their Expected Goals For sum basically split in half, going from 10.4 to 5.8 in that span. Rumor has it that if you don’t create opportunities to score, the chances are that you probably aren’t going to put the puck in the net. What a concept!

Another reason as to why the power-play hasn’t been as effective is where they’ve been generating their shots from. The Flyers have been producing more than league-average shot-rates from the perimeter of the offensive zone compared to other man-advantage units while creating less than average shot rates from the low-to-high slot, per Hockey Viz. As we saw during the Dave Hakstol era and more recently while Mike Babcock was in charge of the Toronto Maple Leafs for the brief part of 2019-20, this type of tactic, which banks on the idea that point-shots will lead to deflection in front of the crease, can severely hinder a team’s offense when the screens and sticks aren’t there. Even so, it probably shouldn’t be utilized when the opposition is down a man as it’s a bit easier to work the puck into the dangerous areas with an extra man on the ice— just a thought.

Now, the real question is, why haven’t they been able to fabricate more chances and dangerous shots this season? That, I don’t know, sorry to break it to you. Could it because Therrien wants them to run the system this way? Maybe. I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, though, as he’s been at the position for less than half of a season. Whatever the underlying cause may be, it has to get fixed or this group as we know it could get a whole lot more ugly as the campaign goes along.

Philly does have time to get out of this funk if you can call it that, but there’s no denying that the numbers I mentioned above are extremely concerning. The hope is that this isn’t the type of system Therrien is aiming for and that the Flyers will figure things out soon because this team can’t go a second straight year with a bad power-play unit, especially with all of the skill and talent at their disposal.