Grove on the Power Play
By Bob Grove

Sergei Gonchar is at one point, Ryan Whitney at the other - both were among the top six defensive scorers in the National Hockey League last season.

Sidney Crosby, the reigning NHL scoring champion, is up front. He's joined by Evgeni Malkin, last season's Calder Trophy winner, and veteran Petr Sykora, who's delivered eight consecutive 20-goal seasons.

Sounds like a pretty good power play unit, right?

That's what it has been for the Penguins for much of the first half of the season: a good power play unit. But Pittsburgh assistant coach Mike Yeo, who oversees the power play for coach Michel Therrien, is hoping for more in the second half, which kicks off Jan. 8 in Florida.

"With the guys we have," says Yeo, "we should be a top five team."

The Penguins were ranked 10th in the league on the power play heading into the final week of December, having converted 19.6 percent of their chances. They were in a slump, too, as they were clicking at just 16.2 percent over a 10-game span in which they went 6-4 and remained mired in fourth place in the Atlantic Division.

"It's been a little inconsistent," Yeo said. "We're scoring in a lot of games, but it's not happening every power play where we have the same impact on the game, from one power play to the next.

"The No.1 thing for me is consistency. From game to game, from power play to power play, I want to see our approach be the same. If we're going to try and be an elite team on the power play, we have to push to get better."

The Penguins finished fifth in the NHL on the power play last season without Sykora, converting 20.3 percent of their chances, and have been among the top seven teams on the power play in each of the previous four seasons. But this season the Pittsburgh power play has not been a major factor in nearly as many games, producing multiple goals just four times in the first 33 games after having done so 27 times last winter.

"Power play success is, No. 1, execution, and No. 2, how hard are you willing to work? Because remember that penalty killers are generally the hardest-working guys on the team," says Yeo. "And No. 3: you have to be willing to take shots from the outside. No matter how well a power play is drawn up, you have to be willing to take some shots from the outside because sometimes that's all you're going to get."

The Penguins haven't always been willing to take a more basic approach, firing from the points and looking for deflections and rebounds. They haven't been establishing puck control in the attacking zone consistently, and they haven't been drawing as many penalties, either - they were on pace to have 71 fewer power-play chances.

But perhaps the most startling numbers Yeo had to consider were these: Malkin had two power-play goals in 25 games, Sykora two in 22 games and Crosby one in 19 games as the Penguins approached the midway point of the season. Given the talent levels of those players, the numbers simply weren't adding up.