Ineffective power play could haunt Golden Knights in playoffs

The Golden Knights might have to come up with a new name for when they are playing with a man-advantage.

It still might be referred to as a power play by traditional nomenclature, but it’s been anything but a strength.

It’s a confounding issue for one of the NHL’s best teams at five-on-five and one that possesses the league’s top penalty-killing unit.

There is far too much talent to not be able to exploit other teams’ penalties, and considering it is one of the Knights’ only weaknesses, it’s a blemish that could be costly in the playoffs.

The issue is not a new one.

It was a fatal flaw last season when the Knights went 3-for-22 on the power play en route to a five-game series loss to Dallas in the Western Conference Final. That included an 0-for-4 effort in a 1-0 Game 1 loss and an 0-for-3 performance in a decisive Game 5 overtime loss.

There hasn’t been much improvement.

The Knights finished tied for 22nd in the league with a 17.8 percent conversion rate on the power play this season, including an 0-for-7 and a 1-for-14 stretch to close the schedule. Only Nashville (17.6 percent) had a worse conversion rate on the power play among playoff teams.

In the season finale, the Knights didn’t score and failed to generate many chances on four power-play opportunities despite dominating the rest of the game in a 6-0 win over a San Jose Sharks team that appeared disinterested for most of the night.

One part of the solution will be getting Max Pacioretty back in the lineup. The veteran forward is tied with Mark Stone for the team lead with six power-play goals, but has missed the past six games with an injury.

“There’s no secret to a good power play,” forward Jonathan Marchessault said. “You’ve got to do the right plays at the right time. There’s no individual plays there; it’s just all about looking at what the opponent is giving us on the entry and in the zone with the pressure and everything and giving each other easy options to be able to execute our plays.”

Coach Pete DeBoer isn’t overly bothered, particularly because of how well his team has performed in other situations. The Knights have the league’s best penalty kill unit at 86.8 percent and have limited opponents to four goals on the past 47 power plays.

“I’m not going to nitpick after a season like that, but absolutely all areas of our game are important come playoff time,” DeBoer said. “If the power play gets hot and the penalty killing gets cold, we’re no better off. We know the things we’ve got to get better at, and we’ll get to work in practice this week.”

If it seems like a lot of focus on a small negative in a good season, that’s probably a fair critique. But this team wasn’t built to be one of the best in the league; it was built to win a Stanley Cup.

That quest formally begins now.

“The next game is a whole new season, so whatever we did on the power play, good or bad, it doesn’t matter anymore,” Marchessault said. “Whatever setup we’re going to have, whoever is playing, there’s no excuse. We have good enough players here that we can have two really good units. We need to generate momentum and chances, and on the power play that’s the biggest thing you can do is generate chances and momentum.”

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on Twitter.