The good, the bad, and the ugly of the Flyers’ power play struggles

John Tortorella didn’t want to discuss it.

Truth be told, what can one say after the elephant in the room dropped its largest goose egg of the season?

But the power play needs to be discussed and it was a prime moment to do so because, on the day after Thanksgiving, the Flyers were gifted with six power-play chances against the Metropolitan Division’s top team and couldn’t bury a single goal. They had 20 shot attempts with the man advantage, including 13 on goal, against Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin in a 3-1 loss.

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It may have been just one of the 82 games the Orange and Black will play this year, but it was another example of how the team is not helping itself. In the 21 games they’ve played so far, in which they’re averaging almost six minutes of power-play time, the Flyers have scored only seven power-play goals across five games.

Of the 16 games without one, five of the seven losses came in one-goal games. A goal would have surely been a momentum swinger but, instead, they went 0-for-13, including five fruitless opportunities against the Carolina Hurricanes in a 3-2 loss and four in a 2-1 loss to the lowly San Jose Sharks.

“It’s a work in progress,” Tortorella said last Sunday, when things were looking up thanks to three goals in two games (3-for-8), including two against the Vegas Golden Knights.

Indeed it is.

So what has gone wrong and what has gone right? It’s time to dissect, even if the bench boss has not.

The Flyers’ power play has a conversion rate of 10.1%. It’s somehow not the worst in the NHL; that, shockingly, belongs to the Alex Ovechkin-led Washington Capitals, who have just three power-play goals and are clicking at a 6.0% effectiveness. Yikes.

Of those seven goals, six were scored from high-danger spots below the hash marks; the lone goal that wasn’t was a Bobby Brink snipe from the left circle, helped by a screen. And of those six goals, only Travis Konecny’s marker against the Ottawa Senators — when the Flyers went 1-for-6 — was scored during a two-man advantage.

When the Flyers have a five-on-four power play, according to Natural Stat Trick, they have 97 shot attempts, with 87 of those being scoring chances. Of those 87, only 46 are actual shots on goal, and of those 24 are high-danger shots. Five of the seven goals were scored on those 24 high-danger shots.

Needless to say, when the Flyers get to the net, they get results. Tyson Foerster has been the guy of late on PP1 to be that net-front presence as the Orange and Block deploy a 1-3-1 power play, like much of the league. He finally got his first goal of the season on Nov. 18 against the Blue Jackets by doing just that.

But, while this is the good section, the problem is they don’t get those high-danger chances enough. The Flyers rank 25th in high-danger chances and are tied for 18th in high-danger goals. And questions arise if the 1-3-1 power play works for the Flyers considering they aren’t getting enough pucks to the net, and they don’t have a true sniper, like a Mika Zibanejad or, usually, an Ovechkin from that left circle. The Flyers have only two slapshot goals this season at any strength.

The why may actually be simple: If you’re not in the offensive zone, you’re not going to score.

Compared with the rest of the Eastern Conference, the Flyers are last when it comes to offensive-zone time with the man advantage at 54.4%. For reference, the hapless Capitals are 55.5% and the Rangers lead the way at 65.4%; the league average is 58.6%.

As Scott Laughton said before Saturday’s game: “I don’t think that it’s a secret that it needs to get better. And I think guys are aware of that.”

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Although that number is better than two years ago (40.6), it’s a dip from last season (54.9), the first under Tortorella. And sure, no one was expecting this team to suddenly become lethal with the man advantage. After all, just two seasons ago the Flyers had the worst power play in franchise history (the league started tracking the statistic in 1977), at 12.6% and last season was not much better at 15.6%.

Specifically against the Rangers, they struggled with zone entries and attempted a number of dump-ins that were easily handled by Shesterkin. But like Wayne Gretzky says: “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take,” and if you’re not in the offensive zone, you’re not taking shots.

When the Flyers do get into the zone and set up, the majority of passes aren’t connecting or the shots aren’t hitting the net. Of those 20 shot attempts against the Rangers on Friday, five missed the net and two were blocked.

“Sometimes guys get focused too much on what they think they have to do and I think it’s more, you know, you’re on there for a reason and let your skill and ability and instincts take over and obviously,” Travis Sanheim said on Nov. 6. “For some guys, it might take a little bit of time. We got some new faces, but I think if we keep working and trying to work together and getting better each day, hopefully, things will turn around.”

Sanheim usually mans the point on PP1. During the game against the Rangers, he started with the usual group of Foerster (net-front), Owen Tippett (bumper), Konecny (left circle) ,and Sean Couturier (right circle). They generated three shots on goal on that power play. Brink, Joel Farabee, Laughton, Sean Walker, and Cam Atkinson were normally the second group, but as the game wore on, things went into the blender.

Against the Islanders on Saturday, the Flyers went 0-for-1. Three of their four shot attempts hit the net — and that power play had a different look to it at times with Morgan Frost (who did not play against the Rangers), Farabee, Forester, Atkinson, and Sanheim seeing time together.

A new power-play group may just be what the Flyers need. Maybe Cam York, who has seen only about four minutes with the man advantage since Nov. 8, needs to be put back on. Maybe Nick Seeler, and his booming shot, or Noah Cates and his good stick should see some time with extra ice.

Tortorella said in San Jose they were “tinkering” with the units before adding, “We’re not going to just blow it up ... we don’t want to panic.”

Fair. But maybe this is what you get from a Tortorella-led team.

Yes, Rocky Thompson is the coach assigned to the power play, but Tortorella teams have not had the best times with the man advantage. Across his six full seasons with the Tampa Bay Lightning (2001-08), the team was tied for 11th with an efficiency of 17.2%. Not bad, but then it slipped. In four full seasons with the Rangers, tied for 23rd (16.8%); 2013-14 with Vancouver, 26th (15.2%), and five full seasons with the Columbus Blue Jackets, tied for 28th (17.0%).

Maybe it’s OK if the power play doesn’t work. The Lightning won the Stanley Cup in 2004 after producing the 16th-best power play (16.2%) and the Rangers went to the Eastern Conference final in 2012 with the 23rd-best (15.7).