A Tale Of Two Special Teams: As Penguins’ Power Play Surges, Penalty Kill Fades

The Pittsburgh Penguins are just 2-2-3 in their seven games since the holiday break, with their most recent game being a statement 5-3 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday.

And in that game – just as in many recent games – special teams played a huge part.

In the second period, Penguins captain Sidney Crosby put home a power play goal to give the Penguins goals in seven straight power plays on home ice. And in the third period, they surrendered a power play goal to Edmonton’s Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, making it seven goals surrendered in the last seven games for Pittsburgh’s penalty kill.

Although both units were hovering around the 10-spot for a while, they are now trending in completely opposite directions. The power play has catapulted itself to fourth in the league at 26.8 percent, while the penalty kill has fallen to 15th in the NHL at 80 percent.

Players are aware that special teams could make a huge difference considering where the Penguins find themselves in the playoff race.

“Special teams is definitely important,” forward Drew O’Connor said. “You look at the standings and how close everything is right now, it’s, really, anyone’s race at this point to kind of grab ahold of it, grab those spots. We’re a little past the halfway point now, and it’s wide open.”

What is behind the power play’s success?

Remember that K.I.S.S. acronym?

Yep, that’s pretty much it. They’re keeping things simple and preparing for each team on an individual basis in meetings with power play coach David Quinn, and it has led to a lot of connectivity within the unit.

“I just think our whole power play as one is playing really well,” said Michael Bunting, who has a team-leading eight power play goals this season. “We’re connected, and we kind of know where we’re going to be at all times. So, I think that helps a lot… When the power play’s clicking like that, it’s pretty easy.”

Keeping things simple starts with quick movement, short passes, not holding onto the puck too long, and shooting the puck, which are all things that were absent last season. Although their power play had been working in spurts at the beginning of the season, that simplicity and movement became more apparent when the power play units were split evenly talent-wise starting Dec. 7 against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

While Bunting said he’s not going to “tell our secrets,” he was quick to praise the work of power play quarterbacks Matt Grzelcyk and Erik Karlsson, both of whom have done great work on either unit.

“They’ve both been great,” Bunting said. “Grzelcyk moves really well out there, and he anchors it. When you have a guy up there, you just want him to distribute the puck and make it quick and easy for us. And that’s what I think he does, and so has Karl. Karl’s been doing that for his whole career, and obviously, he’s an elite defenseman and puck-moving defenseman as well. He sees the game really well. So yeah, either guy up top, we’re very confident in.”

He also said that it’s not so bad when 87 is at the top of his game and operating at a high level from his office down low.

“He sees the next, next play every time,” Bunting said. “You can tell that his head’s up the whole time, looking to see where he’s going to with the puck right when he gets it. It’s hard for a defenseman, or even their whole kill, or even on 5-on-5 to defend a player like that when he thinks the game that far ahead.”

Why has the penalty kill fallen off?

Similar to the power play really beginning to pick up steam after the units were split, there also seems to have been a definitive point when the penalty kill started to go downhill.

And that was the holiday break.

Prior to the break, the Penguins’ penalty kill was sitting pretty at seventh in the league. But in the seven games since, it has fallen to that 15th spot. Some of that simply might be chalked up to timing and a bit of rust.

But another thing that happened to coincide with the break were injuries to the team’s blue line.

Defenseman Marcus Pettersson was the first to go down, as he was injured Dec. 14 against the Ottawa Senators and did not return until New Year’s Eve for a matchup against the Detroit Red Wings.

Owen Pickering – who was killing penalties before the break – was next, getting injured against the New Jersey Devils on Dec. 21 and missing the next four games. Kris Letang was also injured in the first game back after the break – in a Dec. 28 loss to the New York Islanders – and missed the next three games.

It’s not that guys like Karlsson – yes, Karlsson – did a bad job on the penalty kill in their absence. But, sometimes, losing personnel can throw a unit out-of-rhythm.

Regardless of the reason, O’Connor knows what they have to do to get back to where they were prior to the break. He praised the work of penalty kill coach Mike Velucci  in helping them get back where they need to be in meetings and practice.

“I think a lot of the goals we’re giving up, just some of the details have been lacking a little bit,” O’Connor said. “We had a good meeting [Thursday] about some of the things we needed to do a little bit better. A lot of it comes down to communication and getting shared clears. I think some of the times we’ve got ourselves into trouble is when we’ve kind of struggled to get the puck out. It’s not just on the guy with the puck, it’s on everyone on the ice to talk to him, give him options, and give him outs. So, I thinkk that’s one of the biggest things we’ve struggled with.

“I know we can be better than we’ve been. I think we will be.”