Eight games into the season and the Carolina Hurricanes currently have the worst power play in the entire league.

With just two goals to show for its 29 attempts (6.9%), the team's power play is approaching critical status.

"That's a concern," said Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour on Monday. "The top guys have to be better, at the end of the day. We have to find a way to connect."

It's crazy that despite the power play being so bad, that the team is 6-2-0 and has the third highest goals per game total amongst the entire NHL at 3.75 per game.

Their 5v5 and PK games have been so incredibly good to start the year, so just imagine what they would look like with a competent power play.

The biggest thing is that Carolina just isn't generating enough good looks on the man advantage.

According to naturalstattrick.com, the Canes are averaging 106.17 chances per 60 on the power play, which ranks 15th in the league, but they are averaging just 21.72 high danger chances per 60, which ranks 23rd in the league.

Further, according to NHL EDGE, the Canes are spending only 57.7% of their power play time in the offensive zone (21st) and 30.4% of it in the defensive zone (31st).

The team has struggled to maintain sustained pressure and when they wind up outside of it, whether due to errant passes or one of the many blocked shots, they are having a difficult time getting back in.

That struggle is also accentuated by the team's faceoff struggles on the man advantage. 

The Canes' two primary power play centermen (Sebastian Aho and Logan Stankoven) have won just 44% of their draws on the man advantage and when you aren't winning those key faceoffs, you're not getting to set up your plays plus you're losing valuable time.

And while the Hurricanes have yet to allow a shorthanded goal, they've still allowed the second most shorthanded chances in the entire league, behind only the Calgary Flames, so you can't really hang your hat there either.

At the end of the day, the team just needs to be more decisive with the puck on the man advantage. Get pucks to the net, get traffic in front, win those 50/50 board battles and don't be afraid to take a shot from those dangerous areas.

I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention how much of an impact both losing Shayne Gostisbehere and Andrei Svechnikov continuing to struggle has had on the power play.

Last season, the Canes scored 46 power play goals.

Svechnikov accounted for 10 of those and had points on 39% of all the man advantage goals the Hurricanes scored.

Gostisbehere led the team in power play points with 27, nearly 60% of the team's total power play production.

Add in a third factor, that being Nikolaj Ehlers learning a new team and a new system, and you can understand why things have perhaps gone a bit sideways so far.

Obviously there's too much talent for the units to have been this bad, but the team's top power play options also just aren't there currently.

"It's been tough because every game, there's been a different mix of the group," Brind'Amour said. "Every game we've been making changes, so that's part of the problem. You don't want to be doing that and throwing guys into different spots. But we still have to find a way to connect."

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