The Colorado Avalanche could take a page out of the Washington Capitals’ very impressive playoff power play book.
The Colorado Avalanche have an up and down power play, or they did last season. Their power play conversion was at 22% in the regular season, which certainly isn’t bad. Indeed, it was good for eighth in the NHL.
The Washington Capitals’ regular season power play was only slightly better, at 22.5% That put them just above the Avalanche, at seventh in the NHL.
It was the postseason power play that really set the Capitals apart. The conversion was an impressive 29.3%. Colorado’s was a lot lower — 10%. The Avalanche got two power play goals. Here they are:
Game 2:
Game 4:
Unfortunately, neither power play goal came in a game that the Avalanche won. It’s also interesting to note that captain Gabriel Landeskog scored both goals — more about that in a minute.
By contrast, power play goals helped the Capitals win games on a pretty regular basis. For example, in Game 4 alone, Washington scored three:
The Capitals took the game 6-2.
The Washington Capitals were so successful at the power play against the Vegas Golden Knights that Vegas reporter Steve Carp lamented, “The Washington Capitals are making a mockery of the Golden Knights’ penalty killing in the Stanley Cup Final.”
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Going into the series against the Capitals, Vegas’ penalty kill had been near 83% However, it dipped down into the 60s against Washington. The Knights ended up finishing at 79.5%, which was still impressive. But not good enough in the end.
Washington coach Barry Trotz was satisfied with what he saw from his team’s power play: “Our power play was good. They took penalties and we’re OK with that if they want to take penalties.”
The Capitals tend to run a specialized umbrella power play with two players down low, two more halfway up at the faceoff circles, and a quarterback on point. Here’s the specialization — star Alex Ovechkin is positioned at the left faceoff circle. His linemates try to get him the puck for his bomb of a one-timer.
But as you can see from the three videos above, Washington didn’t rely on that exclusively. When it became apparent that Vegas would simply defend Ovechkin more virulently, other Caps forwards started taking shots instead. Indeed, they let him play decoy while they, themselves, “made a mockery” of the Vegas penalty kill.
Here’s where we get back to Landeskog scoring the Colorado Avalanche’s two power play goals in the playoffs. It means Nathan MacKinnon scored zero. Obviously, that wasn’t the case in the regular season — MacKinnon scored 12 power play goals. There’s certainly nothing wrong with that.
However, what do Ovechkin and MacKinnon have in common? They’re both the best player on the team and, therefore, a lightning rod for opponents’ defense.
The Colorado Avalanche could use that to their advantage like the Capitals did. Washington has a T.J. Oshie who can pot a power play goal. The Avs have Mikko Rantanen — who tied MacKinnon for power play tallies in the regular season.
The Caps also have Evgeny Kuznetsov and Nicklas Backstrom for additional power play scoring. Colorado also has Gabriel Landeskog and Tyson Barrie.
Next: Fan Advice, Avs to Knights
Like I said, the Colorado Avalanche power play wasn’t bad last year. However, the team definitely went through power play scoring slumps. Hopefully they can try the decoy strategy next time a slump occurs.