Good news for the Canadian: The Philadelphia Flyers, who will receive a visit from Martin St-Louis' team on Wednesday evening, have a mediocre efficiency rate of 10.8% on the power play. Only 14 goals from 130 chances.
Only the St. Louis Blues are doing worse than they are currently at 10.6% in the entire National Hockey League.
Sean Couturier and Tyson Foerster lead the Flyers with three power play goals each. Oddly enough, Travis Konecny, the Flyers' leading scorer with a total of 21 goals since the start of the season, scored just two goals on the power play but five times when a teammate was in the penalty box.
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“We can maintain a structure, but small adjustments always have to be made depending on the tendencies of the other team,” says head coach Martin St-Louis, explaining the recommended shorthanded strategy. It's not about doing something in one direction against a team [et que ça fonctionne] that it will work the same way against another club.
The Canadian, who ranks 28the Ranked in the NHL with a 72.7% penalty kill performance, has the opportunity to further improve his efficiency. Last Saturday, in the 4-3 win against the New York Rangers, the CH held on despite the opponent firing 14 shots on three power plays.
Minimize scoring chances
Defenseman Mike Matheson, one of the players most used in this facet of the game, and the coach agree.
“Every game we meet to talk about the other team’s tendencies,” Matherson said. We have to try to know what the opposing players are aiming at most in order to minimize our chances of scoring.”
David Savard is one of the other useful elements for the Canadian when the club shows indiscipline. Savard therefore had to play outnumbered for more than four minutes against the Rangers on Saturday.
On the other hand, it should be noted that the Canadian will have a lot to do to score in the power play this Wednesday evening. The Flyers actually rank second in countering the opposing power play at 86.2%. Only the Los Angeles Kings do better than them.
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