At long last, the Pittsburgh Penguins might start to see some real moves from their power play.
The power play of the Pittsburgh Penguins has been a hot topic, as of late, but now it’s beginning to look like there are positives to be drawn.
For the fourth straight game, the Penguins capitalized on a man advantage situation and came up big in overtime.
It was a tough stretch for the power play; a number of games were passing where not only did the group not score, but they weren’t looking good.
Chances were being passed on, too many passes were being sent around, opposing defenses were getting offensive chances of their own.
The Penguins power play looked downright bad for a while, and the numbers relayed that.
Heading into their match against the Buffalo Sabres, the Penguins power play sat at 26th in the NHL with a 18.39% success rate.
Well below league average and doing nothing to help the Penguins win hockey games.
Despite still winning matches, and rebounding nicely from a seven-game losing streak, the Penguins finally began to see traction on their power play.
It started innocently enough when Jake Guentzel score on a 4-on-3 situation against the Vegas Golden Knights; it was a rare 4-on-3, but the seed was planted.
The following game, Kasperi Kapanen recorded his second career hat trick and a pair of his tallies came a man up.
Sidney Crosby got in on the action with second power play goal of the season against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Against the Sabres, the Penguins picked up a pair of goals on the power play; first one from Guentzel to open the scoring, then from Jeff Carter for the overtime game winner.
While it’s a slow and steady incline, the Penguins power play is beginning to find good rhythm, and are actually finding the back of the net.
In the games leading up to the four-game streak, the power play would occasionally look great; they were creating opportunities and shooting the puck, but nothing was bouncing in.
Head coach Mike Sullivan has said that the guys on those units are competitive and scoring on those chances is important to them.
After seeing his team put up a pair of goals with an extra attacker, Sullivan thinks the units are starting to 'feel it' and are gaining traction.
The Penguins penalty kill has been a huge highlight for the special teams and they continue to roll.
Thankfully, after what seemed like ages of work, the Penguins power play is finally joining the party.
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