Canucks power play: a case of quality over quantity so far

Team making most of limited opportunities with man advantage in early going

USA Today - Canucks power play: a case of quality over quantity so far

Through Tuesday's busy slate of National Hockey League games, the Vancouver Canucks sit third in power play conversion at 35.3%. So the Canucks have been ruthless in the early going when getting the chance to work with the man-advantage.

But that's only part of the story. In raw numbers, the Canucks have converted on six of their 17 opportunities and are one of six NHL teams -- and the only Western Conference team -- operating above 30%. Yet last night in Nashville and last Thursday in Tampa Bay, the Canucks had just one occasion go to work on the power play in each of those games. So the percentage is impressive. It's just that the Canucks aren't getting many calls so far.

Despite their success rate, the Canucks are already six goals behind Detroit in actual power play scoring. That's because the Red Wings have had 29 opportunities with the extra skater. And there are two teams that have had more chances than that.

Carolina leads the league with 34 power play opportunities -- twice as many as the Canucks (albeit in one more game). Chicago has been to the power play 30 times through its first seven outings.

The Canucks, on the other hand, are near the bottom of the league two weeks into the new season. St. Louis has had a league-low 15 power play opportunities in its first five games while Pittsburgh, Dallas, the Islanders and Washington have all had 16.

Because of their high-success rate, the Canucks have spent just 28:00 on the power play this season. Only the Stars (22:53), Isles (25:04), Penguins (25:13) and Blues (27:03) have spent less time working with the man-advantage.

With an improved penalty kill, the Canucks find themselves with a negative special teams differential of -6:53 so far this season. That ranks 27th in the league. The Canucks have successfully killed off 18 of 23 penalties (78.3%) while spending 34:53 short-handed. The overall time spent killing penalties is 20th among the 32 teams in the league.