There are so many things that the Flyers need to fix to be competitive next year. It is a sad state of affairs that the only consensus is that there is no consensus as to how to correct all of this team’s woes. Of the many problems, some are personnel-based: the team just needs different players. Some issues, like the power play, are 100% fixable and coaching-based. Which, when you think about it, is a personnel issue too.
In any case, the power play has been embarrassing and it’s almost as if other teams are purposefully taking penalties just to mess with us:
As a reminder the Flyers have been outscored on their own power play since Claude Giroux’s final game.
So, you know … there are worse strategies for opposing teams. https://t.co/MZ7H0XduVp
— Broad Street Hockey (@BroadStHockey) April 10, 2022
The other noticeable difference in the Flyers power play since Claude Giroux has been traded is that they now exclusively run an umbrella formation because Giroux was only player good enough to quarterback the man advantage from the half-wall. The problem is that the Flyers are not running the umbrella very well and in fact, they’re just flat out doing it wrong:
It is debatable whether or not the Flyers’ players themselves are good enough to be legitimate power play threats; it’s hard to tell because they are very clearly being constrained by the coaching. Case in point, there are times the players are able to reorganize off of non-set plays and create for themselves (as you’ll see in the next video).
What is unequivocal, is that the Flyers have zero clue on how to perform the power play breakout and that they simply do not know how to properly execute the slingshot pass (as you’ll also see in this next video):
We see a lot of movement and even a few pucks thrown toward the net, but these all feel like empty calorie scoring chances. This kind of play reminds me of the old John Wooden saying that, “activity is not achievement.”
So, the question then becomes, what does a good power play look like?
There are only 10 games left in this nightmare of a season so it really doesn’t matter how effective the power play is as they play out the string. But whoever the players are and whoever the coaches are next season, the man advantage is an extremely low hanging fruit area to improve.
