Powerless play: Coyotes in dark
Team’s man-advantage game not producing
There are so many moving parts to a power play. How are you entering the offensive zone? Who is going into the boards to retrieve the puck? Who’s the sniper? And who is taking the face-off to start the two-minute period in which your team has more players than the other team?
Each team in the NHL must answer these questions, and each of them must adjust on the fly for each game, which brings a different team with a unique style of penalty-killing unit designed to nullify your man-advantage.
For the Coyotes, it’s been an upand-down season both trying to answer those questions and execute as necessary.
There was a stretch early in the season where the Coyotes’ power play was one of the league’s most successful. Lately, however, the unit has taken a hit across the board — not unlike what has been happening to the Coyotes in
the Western Conference standings.
“In the last couple games there are things that have become evident,” said Coyotes assistant coach Phil Housley, who is in charge of the power play. “The last couple games, we just haven’t been as sharp. A little bit of a reflection of our 5-on-5 play … We’re getting some looks, but is it perfect? No.”
The season totals for the Coyotes’ power play do not inspire much confidence. Despite having the ninth-most opportunities on the power play this season, they are tied for the fifth-fewest shot attempts (376) and also rank in the bottom 10 for expected goals, scoring chances and high-danger chances while on the man-advantage, according to Natural Stat Trick.
“It’s a work in progress,” Housley said. “There’s no excuse for it, but we’ve got to get more shots. I know you’re not going to score on every power play, but it’s got to create momentum for our team.”
In the first few months of the season, the Coyotes had a power play that was effective enough to get them wins in tight games. Through Jan. 8, the Coyotes were shooting at 15.26% and were creating at about an average pace.
Since then, however, that shooting percentage has dropped to 9.38% while the team has converted on just one of their nine high-danger chances generated over that span.
“Each unit has had their stretch of really good games,” Coyotes forward Nick Schmaltz said. “I think you need that because one unit might be clicking one night and the other might not. But we have two units that can score, which is nice. I think in the last 10 games we’ve been a little dry. We haven’t been generating a lot of momentum for our team.”
But what exactly is going wrong for the power play?
The Coyotes are actually very skilled when it comes to zone-entries. Each unit has two forwards who specialize in this department. The first unit has Taylor Hall and Phil Kessel; the second unit has Schmaltz and Clayton Keller. Even others, such as Jakob Chychrun and Conor Garland, have shown a penchant for this skill.
Once that puck is in the offensive zone, however, momentum has been slowed of late. The Coyotes seem to be lacking players who are willing to do what needs to be done in order to retrieve the puck. Coyotes head coach Rick Tocchet acknowledged the difficulty of the job, but maintained that it still needs to get done.
“Retrievals are huge,” Tocchet said, “but everybody’s got to participate. It doesn’t matter the name or number. It’s a dirty job but sometimes you’ve got to sacrifice your body to get that puck. This is crunch time and you’ve got to sacrifice yourself. We need 21 guys doing it.”
Most coaches will tell you that the majority of power-play goals come on second and third scoring chances during a given offensive-zone possession. It’s been a lot of one-and-done for the Coyotes in recent games.
There have also been mistakes. Blind passes to an open point. Giveaways to the penalty-killing unit. An overall lack of execution in crunch time.
“We get it there and we’re getting to a point or on the cusp of the other team being tired,” Housley said, “and then it’s not there. I think a lot of the guys’ intentions are in the right place, but you’ve still got to make the right play. Obviously our power play has got to be a big part of our team. It can win us games or change momentum.”
It’s easy to look at the Coyotes’ recent five-game losing skid and wonder how an effective power play could have turned the tide in recent games, the last three of which have been decided by a total of four goals. The Coyotes are scoreless in their last 10 power-play opportunities during that three-game stretch.
“We want to score,” Garland said. “We want to be a difference-maker for the team. I know we haven’t been lately, so we feel some pressure.”