Recently I’ve eluded to Everett’s struggles on the power play. Well, I’ve done some research into the numbers and found the following:
– The Tips have not scored on their last 25 power plays.
– Over the last 12 games Everett is just 4-for-56. That’s 7.1 percent, which would rank dead last in the league, 3.5 percentage points behind last-place Portland.
– For the first part of the season the Tips were hovering around the league lead at 25 percent. Now Everett is 16th at 17.2 percent.
– The Tips have not scored more than one power-play goal in a game since tallying three in a 4-1 victory at Medicine Hat way back on Nov. 6.
Those numbers pretty much tell the story, but not all of it. Not only has the power play not scored, it’s looked bad. I remember the 2005-06 season when Everett’s power play was lethal. The Tips just whipped the puck around the offensive zone, forcing the opposition to constantly chase, and with Shaun Heshka doing a great job of making sure the puck stayed in the zone many times those chasing sessions lasted for long stretches. That puck movement is nowhere to be seen. It wasn’t there last season either, but it didn’t matter because Peter Mueller had such an effective shot from the point that he either scored or someone else would score on the rebound. The Tips don’t have Mueller anymore, so they need to get back to that quick puck movement that worked two seasons ago if they want their power play to succeed.
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