The Capitals coach discussed the struggling man advantage, which ranks as the second-worst in the NHL.
ARLINGTON, V.A. — The Washington Capitals don't need to be told that their power play is an issue; they're well aware.
Washington's power play currently ranks as the the second-worst in the NHL, operating at just 15.5 percent. Since Dec. 3, it has gone just 16-for-108, and Washington has been blunt that, at times, it has proven to be the difference between wins and losses.
Going into a fierce final playoff push, coach Spencer Carbery said the team is continuing to address it and work through different issues.
"We've got a few things that will adjust. What I'll say with the power play that we're always trying to stay ahead of it. So that's fix things that we see, pre-scout the opponent, look at personnel, but we need to alter something here," Carbery said.
Washington continues to utilize Alex Ovechkin on both units, and the team has been without John Carlson on the second unit over this last stretch as he deals with a lower-body ailment. Ryan Leonard had sparked the power play earlier in the season, but an injury in early December led to inconsistency there.
Looking at personnel, Carbery said that the team is going to continue to tweak things, and also backed his coaching staff, adding that he believes Kirk Muller and the rest of the coaching staff are doing everything they can to find a fix.
"We're all involved in it. I'm not going to break down the specifics of who handles each and every responsibility. Kirk runs the power play, does a great job," Carbery said. "It's not a lack of effort and not a lack of trying to turn over every block and find solutions to what's going on. Yeah, we all contribute and we all hurt the way we see fit. We all try to problem solve it as a staff."
In the team's most recent back-to-back series against the Vegas Golden Knights and Montreal Canadiens, the team went 0-for-9 over those two games where a power-play could've helped tilt the ice in its favor.
For Carbery, the largest part of the issue comes from zone entries, something he said the team has struggled with over the last three seasons.
"There's partly a reason for that, like hands and there's stuff that goes into it. Got to do a better job entering the zone." Carbery said, adding, "When I say enter, you may think like, carry the puck across the blue line... Sometimes it's putting a puck to space and going to get it, retrieving it, but if you can constantly and consistently get set up, I don't what the formation is, because you're eventually going to get opportunities.
"And if you don't (score) one, you still can get set up, set up, set up, set up. And I think that gives power play a tremendous amount of confidence. When you know that you can get set up nine times out of 10, it's a huge help. I just feel like that's over the last three years has been an issue."
Going forward, Carbery said that the team will continue to assess things down the stretch, but rather than focusing on the past and future, will stress the importance of staying in the present moment.
"It's an every day thing... I think two things are really, really important. One is that at this point in the season, if we just completely now all of a sudden, in the most significant games of the year, (try) something you haven't used all year long it's tough now," Carbery said. "The counter to that would be like, 'Well, why not? What's going on right now?' And that would lead me to the second point, though. It's not about what's going on in the past. It's not about our percentage. It's not about how it looked. We need to approach the power play with a one-game mindset.
"The short term memory like a goldfish, however, you want to explain of just getting our power play group to have a mindset of like, 'It's a pretty slate tonight. We're going to be the best power play in the league, We're going to be completely on the same page with every little detail of it.' I don't care what happened to Montreal. I don't care what's happened the last 60 games. I don't care what our percentage is. It's a clean slate tonight. So trying to get us as as mentally strong as possible and just worry about tonight."