Flavin Media

Interim HC Joe Sacco has been emphasizing the team’s defensive forechecking identity—something that should have been the focus all along. However, one glaring issue remains: the power play. This problem can be fixed with more emphasis on a certain approach and some positional tweaks.

SPEED with entries:
Since Sacco took over, there have been fewer drop-back passes on the power play, which encourages players to think north faster. But the team still needs to enter the zone with much more pace—no matter how they do it. Have a player to pass to? A gap to stickhandle through? Sure—but get there quickly with momentum. Make the entry or the mistake faster, and the team will eventually be successful regardless of the outcome.

Put Pastrnak’s office under construction:
Having Pastrnak sit in his little faceoff circle worked in the past and sounds cool, but it has simplified the opposition’s penalty kill plan. Taking up 70% of the kill unit’s brainpower is too easy for them. Putting Pastrnak in a more mobile role will give opponents much more to think about. Placing him on the opposite side of the ice, away from a stagnant circle role, will give the power play more options.

Elias Lindholm is the consistent bumper:
This ties into activating Lindholm, who can serve as a key point on the power play. With Lindholm consistently stepping into the Bergeron bumper role, this creates a cooperative game plan among the surrounding players instead of a singular default move. Put Pastrnak on the opposite side with multiple decision options, and if he feeds Marchand, Marchand then has choices as well—including passing to Lindholm in the slot when open.

Other than acquiring more decisive offensive players, these changes can definitely fix the power play issues.