Power-play unit continues to its miss mark
PHILADELPHIA >> The most frustrating reality in sports is that sometimes what seems right, what should be right, what makes the most sense somehow just ceases to function. Dave Hakstol’s No. 1 power play unit is a handy, timely example.
That’s because for all of its reasonable construction, it somehow cracked at the end of last season … then continued to spread exasperation throughout the Wells Fargo Center Thursday in the home opener of the Flyers’ 50th season.
Blessed with everything — with experience, with bounce, with creativity, with players with AllStar pedigree — the Flyers have reason to believe a unit of Shayne Gostisbehere, Jake Voracek, Claude Giroux, Wayne Simmonds and Brayden Schenn occasionally will dominate. But as they fell, 3-2, to the Anaheim Ducks, their powerplay units provided one goal in 12:56 of advantage time, bumbling along at 1-for-7.
That’s how two-game losing streaks reach three. And that’s what the Flyers have to correct if they don’t want theirs to reach four, as they already are into their annual slow and damaging start.
“Kept turning the puck over in the neutral zone,” Simmonds grumbled. “Make sure we are bearing down on it. Got to be better at it. Got to make sure.”
The potential of the power-play unit to be great, and the possibility that it could fail, both were on display toward the end of last season. As the Flyers made a late playoff push, the power play hummed. Healthy, aggressive, benefitting from the injection of the Rookie of the Year candidate Gostisbehere at the blue line, it trended toward hockey perfection. Then came the playoffs and six games against Washington. In that series, the Flyers would score one power play goal. Total.
With that, the questions bubbled. What was wrong? Though it seemed both Giroux and Gostisbehere were slowed by injury, the Flyers were in full denial. That was the proper play, of course, at the time. There was no reason in the gut of a playoff series to go excuse-fishing. But the offseason found both Flyers at the cutting end of scalpels. So the power play failed in the playoffs, but at least there was that reason. That did not mean, however, that it would not be a persistent topic during training camp — enough of one that by the time the Flyers were ready to leave Voorhees for their season-opening three-game road trip, Simmonds, for one, seemed to have had enough.
“I think we finished 11th last year, and every other year we were in the top five,” he said. “If you look at it, 11 is not too bad. If you are in the top 11 for five years straight, going on six now, I think we are doing a pretty decent job.”
In their first three games, the Flyers scored a total of two power-play goals, both in a loss in Chicago, one by Simmonds, one by Matt Read, who was filling in on the No. 1 unit for the then-still-suspended Schenn. As the Flyers faced the Ducks Thursday, they were connecting at 20-percent efficiency and ranked 13th in the NHL. That explains as well as anything why they lost two of three, even if one was by overtime in Arizona.
“There was not a full, complete 60-minute hockey game really in any of the three games,” Hakstol said before the game. “So it’s early in the year. But those are things that you have to work on and build on.”
The potential of the power play was on bright display at 4:52 of the second Thursday when Voracek took control from the top and found Simmonds to the right of Anaheim goalie John Gibson. Simmonds deposited his third goal, making it 1-1 and sending a capacity crowd into an uproar on a night when the Flyers were determined to celebrate traditions.
As it would happen, that would include the recent tradition of power-play failure, the Ducks surviving despite being shorthanded five times in the period. Emboldened, Anaheim would score just after a Flyers’ power play to force a 2-2 tie, then would win in the third on a Ryan Garbutt goal.
“You know, I thought we had pretty good power plays,” Hakstol said. “We had a pretty good power play goal in the second and had opportunities to stretch it to 3-1. It was disappointing that we couldn’t. We had one poor power play at the end of the first where we weren’t able to get set up at all. Our power play was OK. The bigger thing for me was the goal we gave up seconds after the last power play.”
As staggering as the Flyers’ power-play boxscore line was, it was the way it was fashioned that should alarm. For just as they appeared in that playoff series, the Flyers were smothered by the bigger Ducks. “We were playing,” Hakstol said, “against a heavy team.”
Until Ron Hextall finds a way to make the Flyers substantially bigger, they will often struggle. Gostisbehere, who dominated from the blue line on the power play as a rookie, has been seeing different looks, with opposing coaches catching up to his skills and tendencies. Schenn, who does add some heft , played for the first time Thursday. The power play could improve as he settles into form.
But on a night when the Flyers looked back over their first 49 seasons, the first home game of their 50th had a familiar look. Sometimes, the most revealing history can be the most recent. The most challenging, too.