Plugging power back into power play
Vigneault moves Kesler to the point to jump- start sluggish special teams
Just as Ryan Kesler was about to start answering questions Friday regarding the Vancouver Canucks’ power play, the lights went out in the team’s dressing room.
“Power failure?” Kesler asked before the lights quickly went back on.
Those two words pretty much sum up the state of Vancouver’s struggling power play, which has been given a new look.
If you blinked you may have missed it because the Canucks only had one power- play opportunity in Thursday’s 3- 2 win over the Winnipeg Jets, but coach Alain Vigneault has decided to go with four forwards and just one defenceman on the first unit.
And Kesler has been moved from being the unit’s net- front presence to playing the left point.
Alex Burrows has been added as the extra forward and will fill Kesler’s former role.
Defenceman Sami Salo has been dropped to the second unit.
Vigneault described the changes as an attempt to jumpstart the team’s sagging power play, but it seems they were made at least in part to free up Kesler and allow him to use his shot more often.
He scored 41 goals last season and not surprisingly that got the attention of opposing teams, who are giving him less room to operate this season. Playing the point on the power play allows him the time and space to shoot more.
“Scoring 41 goals last year, teams are going to key in on me more and play me harder and it’s harder minutes and they are taking away my time and space to shoot,” Kesler said. “So you’ve got to find other ways to use the shot.”
And while Thursday’s brief debut was his first experience manning the point, Kesler seemed to like it.
“I get the puck a little more,” he said with a smile, later adding: “It’s a little different playing the point, but at the same time I think I can use my shot more and help the power play that way.”
The early reviews on the new power play were positive. Even though they failed to score, the Canucks registered six shots on goal and Kesler rang another one off the post.
“We should have scored, we had Grade A scoring chances, we did everything we are supposed to do but the puck didn’t go in the back of the net,” Vigneault said after Friday’s practice.
“I liked what I saw the one time from that unit and I liked what I saw from the second unit, too. They moved it around, got some good shots on net, some good scoring chances and unfortunately we just didn’t score.”
When something isn’t working as well as he thinks it should, Vigneault has never hesitated to make changes. And he’s clearly growing impatient with the power play. Its inability of late to score is probably the single biggest reason the Canucks are winning so many of their games by one goal.
Last year, when their power play was clicking on all cylinders pretty much all season, the team was regularly winning games by two or three goals.
“I think at this stage if you look at the way our power play has been since the Boston game [ on Jan. 7], the percentage we have right now with both units, I think it is fair to say I can try whatever I want,” Vigneault said.
“So we’re trying different personnel and just trying to jumpstart this to see if we can get it going.”
In the 26 games they have played since that meeting with the Bruins, when the Canucks scored a season- high four power- play goals, Vancouver has gone 8- for- 69 on the power play for a conversion rate of just 11.6 per cent. In their first 42 games, they went 41- of- 168 on the power play for a success rate of 24.4 per cent.
As a result the Canucks have dropped from first in the NHL on the power play to third at 20.7 per cent. That’s a respectable number, but the team’s power play is definitely trending in the wrong direction.
The Canucks have complained lately about a lack of power- play opportunities. In nine of their last 12 games, for example, they have had three or fewer power plays.
“I have never seen it like this before, the amount of power plays we have had since January has to be one of the lowest in a stretch of hockey that I can remember,” said Vancouver defenceman Dan Hamhuis.
But it does seem to be a league- wide phenomenon. On Thursday, for example, there were 12 games and 10 of the 24 teams had two or less power plays.
The Canucks actually stack up quite well in terms of the amount of power- play time they are getting. With just over 374 minutes of power- play time this season, they rank 11th in the NHL. Last year, despite all their success with the man advantage, they ranked 19th in that category.
Winger Chris Higgins, a member of the team’s second power- play unit, said there’s no doubt that penalties are harder to come by these days.
“I think there are always games where you disagree with the ref a couple of times, but it does seem like that extra halfsecond of holding is taking place now, especially in the corners, on the pins,” he said. It’s something the league has gotten away from a little bit.
“But I think you create your own opportunities on the power play.
“We have to keep moving our feet and making sure we give them no reason not to call a penalty.”