The Calgary Flames don’t need to reinvent the wheel to get their power-play back on track.
The formula for being effective with the man-advantage isn’t necessarily all that complicated and a back-to-basics approach might be the cure to whatever is ailing a power-play that hasn’t buried a goal in half-a-dozen games.
Keep things simple. Create traffic in front of the net. Win faceoffs and make sure your shot volume is high.
Recently, though, that just isn’t what’s been happening.
“It sucks (because) the power-play is a huge part of our game and sometimes it’s going to give you the extra boost and that win,” said Flames winger Jonathan Huberdeau, who is a fixture on the top power-play unit. “Individually, you need to work hard, put on the work boots. Sometimes I think we think the power-play is going to be easy and it’s not, so I think we’ve got to get out there and play harder, feel like it’s five-on-five and play hard.”
The Flames’ power-play numbers have been ugly over the past two weeks.
They’ve gone 0-for-20 since Blake Coleman scored on a five-on-four in the first period of their overtime loss to the Seattle Kraken on Oct. 19. That’s six full games without a power-play goal, plus two periods in Seattle.
On Friday against the New Jersey Devils, they didn’t score in four attempts and forced Jacob Markstrom to make only four saves on those opportunities.
Anecdotally, the Flames seem to do OK once they’re set up in their opponents’ zone and are able to cycle the puck.
It’s getting set up that’s been the challenge.
There are a couple factors there.
It starts with success at the dot, as the Flames are winning only 51.5% of their faceoffs when they’re on the man-advantage, which is 20th best in the NHL. That’s slightly better than their overall 45.1% success rate, which is second-worst in the NHL this season, but it still means their opponents are gaining possession and able to clear the puck more often than they’d like.
“I think obviously faceoffs off the start of a power-play are pretty key,” said Flames defenceman MacKenzie Weegar. “If we continue to keep breaking it in, guys get a little bit more tired. You’ve got to go back for a puck and break it in again, so that first faceoff is key, but then when you do, it’s obviously not going to happen every time but we’ve got to break in, sometimes we do struggle with the break-ins.”
Entering the offensive zone has been a challenge, with the Flames repeatedly getting the puck to the opposition blue-line and then turning it over and having to go retrieve it deep in their own end and start over.
That wastes time and energy, and it’s something the Flames are trying to fix.
“What we’re looking to do is use speed and make sure we fill lanes so that we have options on entry,” explained Flames assistant coach Cail MacLean, who is responsible for the team’s power-play. “We’re looking to make sure we’re making decisions in the moment, whether it’s simplicity or there’s a play there. We have to make sure we have our basic speed, lanes and make the right play.
When we’re on with that, we usually get in really well.
“I think that it’s so important for us to have effective entries going back to our basic principles of speed and lanes and making sure that we’re pushing teams back so that we have the opportunity to make a play.”
The Flames’ 0-for 20 stretch has dropped their power-play percentage to 14.3%, which is 27th in the 32-team league. After five games, they were at 29.4%, which was the seventh-best rate, so there’s an early body of work that suggests the group can be effective.
It hasn’t been recently, though, and nobody is hiding from the fact that it needs to get back on track.
“In-zone, we’ve been pretty good in-zone when we get set up,” Weegar said. “It’s just about getting to the net and being dogs in front of the goalie and maybe just getting a greasy one to start off and then maybe things will open up.”