The Flyers don’t have to squint very hard to see what’s missing from their power play. The chances are there.
The talent is there. What hasn’t shown up yet is the finish.
That was the backdrop on Tuesday afternoon, when Porter Martone talked through where Philadelphia’s man advantage stands heading into Wednesday night’s primetime regular season opener against the Pittsburgh Penguins. The unit has been one of the quieter but more telling camp storylines, especially after its top-heavy makeover and an 0-for-4 finish in the preseason finale against a heavily shorthanded Washington Capitals group.
Philadelphia’s top power-play group - Martone, Trevor Zegras, Jamie Drysdale, Tyson Foerster, and Matvei Michkov - has already spent enough time together to create looks. The problem has been turning those looks into goals. The Flyers generated chances that normally should have been buried if the final touch had been sharper, but as Martone put it, almost doesn’t count in hockey.
“I think the big thing about the power play is gaining chemistry, seeing other people's tendencies, and it's not going to happen overnight. It's not going to click right away.
It takes time,” Martone told The Hockey News. “It takes reps.
It takes practice. It takes some adversity.”
Martone, the 19-year-old former No. 6 overall pick, also spent part of last week working with Michkov in bumper drills. Assistant coach Yogi Svejkovsky fed the puck to Michkov with his back to the net, and the winger would pivot and either take the shot himself or move it to Martone for a look from the slot. Then the two would trade places and run the same sequence from both sides of the formation.
“Just being able to work with him and learn the way he does things is just going to help our players play,” Martone said of Michkov, “and help us climb the ranks and be a top power play in the league.”
The raw materials are obvious. Martone said four of his first 10 points at the NHL level came with the man advantage, and he believes the breakthrough is close.
“I think it's coming. It's a work in progress.
I think, for us, it's just scoring goals at crucial times. You can be 0-for-4 in a game, but it's a tie game in the third period - you got to capitalize,” Martone assessed.
“You come through at a big time, power play is going to help. You don't want to swing games. I think we're all very skilled players, and it's just time for us to capitalize on our opportunities.”
Rick Tocchet sounded the same note after Tuesday’s practice. The Flyers’ coach said the issue is less about drawing up the right play and more about the details that turn movement into production.
“There's going to be some growing pains. It's more than plays, it's chemistry and reads.
Like, last game, we had four point-blank shots in the slot, we missed the net on three of them,” Tocchet said. “We have to convert on those plays.
That's it.”
Against the Capitals on Saturday night, the Flyers spent eight minutes on the power play and came away empty. They produced 13 unblocked shot attempts, eight scoring chances, and two high-danger chances, but no goals. Washington, meanwhile, scored eight seconds into its second-period power play after a David Jiricek penalty, stretching the lead to 3-1 and taking control of the game.
The Flyers never recovered, and the night ended in a 5-1 loss to a Capitals team that was far from full strength, loaded instead with young prospects and AHLers.
That’s the part Philadelphia has to clean up. As Martone said, the power play can flip momentum in a hurry, for better or worse.
On Saturday, the Flyers got burned by the bad side of that equation. If they’re going to push toward a second straight playoff berth, they’ll need that unit to start cashing in when it matters.
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