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“At Least We’re Shooting the Puck,” Says Rick Tocchet as Flyers’ Power Play Hits Five-Year High
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Don’t look now, but the Flyers have won four of five after blasting the Sabres 5 to 2 in South Philly on Wednesday night. That included another 60-second, three-goal surge in which they scored twice on the Pecoooooo power play:
One nicely-screened goaltender and then a funky deflection. Two different goals, but they count just the same. Said Rick Tocchet of the power play:
“We had some looks up top, obviously got a few blocked, so we might have to change some angles there, but at least we’re shooting the puck. If it hits a shaft or something I can live with it, but we’re getting more shots from the middle. When you shoot the puck, and Trevor (Zegras), whether it’s lucky or not, we’re delivering pucks (into dangerous areas) – I think he was trying to go backdoor to somebody (when it deflected in), but you’re delivering pucks. I’d like to see a little bit more movement early on in the power play, being picky, but it was good for us (Wednesday night).”
“I thought I saw TK on the far side,” Zegras said of the fluky goal. “But I’ll take it.”
That’s 14 power play goals for the Flyers through 26 games. They’re on pace to smash every post-pandemic total, which isn’t saying much obviously since the power play has stunk for a long time now, but here’s a closer look at the Sportradar data going back five seasons now:
18.7% on the power play this year with 1.40 shots on goal per PP. It’s better, but still needs to improve. The league average for SOG per power play is around 1.45, so the Flyers rank 21st out of 32 teams. Most of these ranks are in the 17 to 24 range, so bottom half, but much closer to the middle than the basement this year. There’s been steady improvement across the board.
“You look at a lot of the top power plays, other than the really skilled ones, it’s just getting pucks to the net, deflections, getting bodies there, outnumbering them,” said Travis Konecny. “I think we focused on doing that (in this game).”
More importantly, the Flyers have 33 points and are just three points off the division lead. It’s so tightly packed in the Metro right now that there’s only seven points separating the first-place Caps and last-place Blue Jackets. There’s parity in the NHL this season, or, at least the cream has yet to rise to the top.
Let’s get Flyered up.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com