Meltzer's Musings: Flyers Power Play Woes
1) The 2023-24 Flyers set an unwanted new franchise record: The lowest single-season power play success rate in team history. The Flyers converted just 31 of their 254 power play opportunities, for a 12.2 percent success rate.
The "official" previous low-water mark was the 2021-22 season (30 for 239, 12.6 percent). The NHL did not adopt power play data as an official statistic until the 1977-78. Based off box score research compiled by Flyershistory.com, the actual lowest previous mark was the inaugural 1967-68 season (33-for-269, 12.3 percent). Unfortunately, the distinction no longer matters. By any measure, 2023-24 is rock bottom.
The Flyers have finished last in the NHL in power play efficiency for three straight seasons: 12.6 percent in 2021-22, 15.6 percent in 2022-23, and 12.2 percent last year. Note that the issue predates the hiring of Rocky Thompson as forwards/power play coach.
In 2021-22, with Claude Giroux in his final season as a Flyer prior to being traded near the deadline to the Florida Panthers, Michel Therrien was the power play coach at the start of the season (until he was dismissed along with head coach Alain Vigneault). Later, with Mike Yeo behind the bench as interim head coach, the Flyers hired John Torchetti to run the power play for the remainder of the season.
The Flyers, in fact, have had something of a revolving door of power play coaches since the end of Joe Mullen's nine-season tenure (2007-08 to 2016-17). In 2017, Flyers general manager opted not to extend the 60-year-old Mullen's expiring contract. Hextall brought in highly touted Erie Otters head coach Kris Knoblauch, then 39 years old, to serve as the new power play coach for his first NHL coaching opportunity. Knoblauch is now the Edmonton Oilers head coach.
Knoblauch lasted two seasons as the Flyers' power play coach, serving under Dave Hakstol and Scott Gorden. The Flyers power play, which still had the likes of Giroux, Jakub Voracek, Wayne Simmonds (until the 2019 trade deadline) and Shayne Gostisbehere, still clicked at a 20.7 success rate in both seasons. However, it did not reach the same high water marks that Philly hit during Mullen's tenure (the top seasons being 22.5 percent in 2008-09 and 23.4 percent in 2014-15).
When the Flyers hired Vigneault as head coach in 2019, he brought in old friend (and former NHL head coach) Therrien to run the power play. Therrien was a big believer in funneling pucks to the netfront. During the Flyers resurgent 2019-20 season, the power play was one of the few areas that went backward. The success rate dropped to 17.1 percent. It rebounded a bit during the pandemic-shortened, all-divisional 52-game schedule of 2020-21 to 19.3 percent. Oddly enough, most of the gains the Flyers made in other areas during 2019-20 collapsed in the Covid-driven 2020-21 season.
In 2021-22, virtually nothing worked right. That certainly included the power play. The John Tortorella era started in 2022-23.
Two seasons later, the Flyers are still searching for answers on the power play. At his end-of-season press conference last Friday, Tortorella said the plan this summer was to retain Thompson as power play coach as well as forwards coach. Thompson has a strong rapport with the forwards and, Tortorella noted. is not afraid to try a variety of different personnel alignments and tactics on the power play.
The bottom line, however, is that nothing has worked for any sustained basis. The most successful experiment was a double-screen look but that, too, got discarded as soon as it went south for a few games. Certain aspects -- zone entries, for one -- showed improvement but the team still lacked any consistent threats at netfront, the bumper (hash marks/slot), the flanks or or the point. They were adept at making a pass from the half-wall the point or from the point to a forward skating downhill to the top of the circle but the volume of shots that got through to the net -- let alone went in the net -- was exceedingly modest.
Morgan Frost led the Flyers in 2023-24 with 11 power play points in 2023-24 (3 PPG, 8 PPA) in 71 games played. Travis Konecny was second with nine power play points (4 PPG, 5 PPA). Defenseman Egor Zamula had nine power play points (2 PPG, 7 PPA) in 66 games played. Owen Tippett (5 PPG, 3 PPA) and Tyson Foerster (4 PPG, 4 PPA) had eight power play points apiece. Joel Farabee (2 PPG, 5 PPA) and Sean Couturier (3 PPG, 4 PPA) each had seven.
In the big picture, there is no doubt that the Flyers need more talent at their disposal. However, there is more to it than just a lack of talent. The 2023-24 Flyers were not the least talented team in the NHL, yet even the NHL's second-worst power play (Columbus at 15.2 percent) produced at nearly three percent higher. The San Jose Sharks (ranked 21st at 20.2 percent) and Seattle Krakekn (ranked 17th at 20.7 percent) were hardly clubs that people looked at enviously for all their pure talent, yet they produced respectably.
By the way, the Pittsburgh Penguins ranked 30th in the NHL this season at 15.3 percent (less success than the 2022-23 Flyers had statistically). Yet their roster for all -- or at least much -- of the 2023-24 season still featured Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Erik Karlsson, Kris Letang, Jake Guentzel (50 game pre-injury and pre-trade to Carolina), and Bryan Rust.
The takeaway: The Flyers do need more offensive firepower for their power play. But added talent alone isn't the lone solution. There was at least enough in place year for the team not to be at the very bottom of the NHL by several percentage points. There was, in fact, no justifiable reason why Philly couldn't have at least modestly improved on 2022-23. Even a 17 percent power play (Montreal ranked 27th at 17.5 percent success) would have been moving forward ever so slightly. Posting the worst power play numbers in franchise history was downright unacceptable. There was at least enough talent on hand not to be THAT horrid.
Will it hurt for the Flyers to ask in-house staff such as John LeClair, Patrick Sharp, Dany Heatley and general manager Danny Briere himself for collaborative ideas on how the improve the power play? No, it won't hurt. But how much, if any, will it help? Based on empirical evidence, not much in and of itself.
If being a successful power play threat during one's own NHL career was all it took to transfer that success to current players, Mark Recchi would produce elite results as an NHL power play coach wherever he's gone. That hasn't been the vase. When Wayne Gretzky was the Coyotes' head coach, he could woven magic in conjunction with a staff full of long-tenured NHL coaches rather than producing a cumulative 16.9 percent rate (with a low-water mark of 14.5 percent in 2008-09). Adam Oates, as a Devils assistant, could have coaxed something better than 14.4 percent out of the 2010-11 squad.
Bottom line: The Flyers need to take the smaller elements they improved in 2023-24 and build off those into to a better process that yields tangible results. It's probably going to happen gradually and it will ultimately need talent upgrades to get back into the top half of the league. But there's lower-hanging fruit that is within reach in the shorter-term future. What happened in 2021-22 and 2023-24 can never happen again; especially not when the 2022-23 season comparatively represented one-year progress yet the team's PP was still ranked last.
We're not talking small sample sizes. We're talking about a steep and prolonged path of decline across multiple coaches and widely varying personnel. It needs to improve, and not just for a short stretch here and there.
Phantoms Playoff Preview: Article and Podcast
On PhiladelphiaFlyers.com today, I wrote an in-depth preview of the upcoming best-of-three Calder Cup playoff series between the Lehigh Valley Phantoms and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins:
Click here.
If you'd prefer a Phantoms/Penguins preview in podcast format, Brian Smith and I have you covered in the latest edition of the Prospect Pipeline podcast:
Click here. The podcast runs 22:58.
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