It's time for the Penguins' power play to make its mark on this series.
The Pittsburgh Penguins have climbed their way back into their first-round series against the Philadelphia Flyers.
They started too slow, dropping the first three games before winning the next two and have a chance to tie the series on Wednesday night in Philadelphia. They'd also force a winner-take-all Game 7 back in Pittsburgh on Saturday with a win on Wednesday.
Several members of the Penguins weren't themselves to start the series, but have slowly gotten back to themselves over the last two games.
Sidney Crosby has found his legs and is locked in. Kris Letang has scored the game-winning goal in back-to-back games and has found the fountain of youth. Anthony Mantha arrived in Game 5 and was a force on the forecheck. Ben Kindel was also more involved in all three zones.
However, the Penguins' power play has been one big sour spot in this series and that unit has yet to find any consistency. The Penguins scored three combined power play goals in Games 3 and 4, but have zero goals on the man-advantage in the other three games.
Both PP units have looked spooked on the ice and have really struggled to gain the zone and get to the high-danger areas. There's also been too much perimeter play and not as much of a shoot-first mentality compared to the regular season. Those last two struggles were very much on display in Game 5, when the Penguins had a ton of zone time but couldn't translate it into any actual chances.
The power play can change the series' complexity if it shows any consistency on Wednesday, since the Penguins have started playing better at 5v5 and breaking through the Flyers' 1-1-3 trap. For that to happen, it needs to get back to basics. The zone entries need to be crisp, and they need to fire a lot more pucks at Flyers goaltender Dan Vladar.
I'd also like to see Erik Karlsson, who has been electric for the Penguins this season, be more decisive. He hasn't been bad or anything in this series, but there's obviously a much higher level that he can reach since everyone saw it during the regular season.
The power play is the last unit that really needs to get going since the penalty kill has been superb and the 5v5 play has started to improve. Let's see if it can in the Penguins' biggest game of their season to date.
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