Ad Disclosure
Flyers Power Play Operating at a Cool 10.7% During This Postseason
Published:
Ironically, the Flyers scored on the Peeeeeeeco Power Play Monday night, one of two goals that put them in front of the Hurricanes early.
Perhaps they would have finished the job if they had scored on one of their six ensuing opportunities, but they did not, and despite carving out some good overtime looks, they fell to Carolina by a 3-2 OT scoreline, dropping into an 0-2 series hole.
There wasn’t a ton of confidence that the Flyers could hang with a Cup contender in round 2, but it’s not a false narrative to say they might be 1-1 in this series if they had even a league-average power play. Here’s the Sportradar playoff data:
It’s a 10.7 power play percentage for the Flyers, so 13th out of 16 teams. Utah and Ottawa were eliminated in the 1st round while Buffalo is still alive despite their similar PP struggles.
The thing that kills you is that the Flyers have had 28 power play opportunities, which is tied for 2nd most with Minnesota. But they’ve only mustered 29 shots on goal during those 28 opportunities, which gives you a 1.04 SOG-per-power play number, and that’s ahead of only the Senators, who were swept by the Canes team that the Flyers are currently trailing.
There’s nothing particularly new or revelatory about any of this, considering the Flyers’ power play has been terrible for years. They’re still technically in a rebuild and lacking high-end offensive talent. They also do not have a quarterbacking D man to run the point like a Quinn Hughes or Evan Bouchard, though those types of guys don’t exactly grow on trees. Maybe 24-year-old Jamie Drysdale gets there at some point. Zone entry has always been janky and when they do get set up they don’t pass or shoot with any kind of assertiveness. Maybe you take TK off the power play entirely and see what you get out of some kind of Martone/Zegras/Michkov combo. Maybe Jiricek comes in next season and just unloads bullets from the point. Half wall Michkov seems to pick out defensemen all the time, so someone who can blast one-timers would go a long way.
Or just tear it down entirely in the summer and rebuild from scratch. Go Flyers.
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