Power play is major concern

Had Jake Guentzel not scored twice or the Penguins offense struck three times in 3:18 early in the third period of a 4-1 win Wednesday against Nashville, we might be talking about the Penguins’ struggles on the power play in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup final.

The group went 0 for 7 in 11:26, registering just two shots on goal. It would be tough to find a worse performance in these playoffs.

“I know we can play better,” center Evgeni Malkin said. “We’re not happy. We had so many power plays. We need to learn. We need to watch video and talk. It’s not fun.

“Each power play is very important. If we don’t score, we need to shoot the puck on net and play hard. I think we were a little bit casual.”

Has this been a problem consistently for the Penguins throughout the playoffs? Absolutely not.

In fact, the power play has been a strength more often than it has been an issue, starting with its No. 3 ranking league-wide in the regular season, tied with the Washington Capitals at 23.1 percent.

In the postseason, the Penguins have clicked at 22.7 percent. They’ve played 21 playoff games and scored a power-play goal 13 times, twice scoring multiple goals.

The power play’s best series was in the Eastern Conference final against Ottawa, when it went 6 for 19 (31.6 percent).

Winger Phil Kessel leads the way with five goals, captain Sidney Crosby has four and Malkin and Kessel are tied for the power-play lead with 11 points apiece.

Great numbers, but the unit didn’t give the Penguins any sort of punch Wednesday. It’s something the Penguins will want to correct before Game 3 Saturday.

Speaking on a conference call Thursday, Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said he thought the power play can and will improve.

“I know our power play will be better,” Sullivan said. “It wasn’t at its best [Wednesday] night, but these guys have been so good for us throughout the regular season and playoffs.”

Sullivan was happy with how the Penguins used the perimeter to set up. He believes — and this has been a consistent issue — they can have more of a shoot-first mentality.

Faceoffs also hurt. They won just three of 10 powerplay draws in Game 2. Crosby went 2 for 6, and Nick Bonino was 1 for 1. This postseason, they’ve won nearly 51 percent of powerplay faceoffs.

Sullivan didn’t have a huge issue with zone entries and believes the Penguins simply need to execute better when there’s an opportunity there.

“When we win that first faceoff, it certainly helps us with that immediate zone time, which gives our guys an opportunity to act on their instincts,” Sullivan said. “The power play has won a lot of games for us here, and they’re going to be important for us moving forward.”

Making history

Guentzel wasn’t the only historical part of the Penguins victory Wednesday night.

Turns out that Pittsburgh delivered a 31.1 local rating, its best for a game on NBC Sports Network. That includes all previous Stanley Cup final games.

Nashville had the secondbest local rating at 16.3.

Nationally, it delivered a 2.46 overnight rating, trailing only Boston-Chicago (2.87) in 2013 as the best Stanley Cup final Game 2 on the network.