Penguins Update: Power-Play Woes Continue

It’s bound to happen. Sooner and later, a puck will glance off of Patric Hornqvist and skitter across the goal line. Or Kris Letang will laser one in from the top of the circle. Or Evgeni Malkin will curl off the half-wall and rip one home.

Yes, eventually the black and gold will score a power-play goal.

In the meantime, our beloved “Boys of Winter” are dead last in the league in power-play efficiency. Oh-for-seventeen through five games…and counting. And they seem to be getting worse. Everybody’s scrambling around, doing their own thing. There’s no unity or cohesion.

It’s enough to give the man in charge—assistant coach Rick Tocchet—nightmares.

The Pens’ power (play) outage certainly isn’t due to a lack of talent. Not with two-time scoring champion Sidney Crosby sharing the ice with fellow superstars Phil Kessel and Malkin. So what gives?

There are lots of contributing factors. Everything from a lack of rotation and movement to passing up shots in pursuit of the picture-perfect play.

Perhaps color man Phil Bourque hit the nail on the head during last night’s radio broadcast. He said the Penguins’ power-play lacked a leader. A general. Someone to take charge.

It’s a role that’s usually filled by a club’s top offensive defenseman. In the Pens’ case, Letang. While “Tanger’s” an extraordinary talent, he’s no quarterback. Never has been. Ditto Crosby, who prefers to generate plays from the half-boards rather than the point, where he could see the whole ice.

GM Jim Rutherford was fully aware of the potential pitfall. That’s why he invited Sergei Gonchar to camp. The point-man extraordinaire might’ve been just the right tonic, too. A master at controlling tempo and pace, “Sarge” knew when to speed things up and when settle things down. When to distribute the puck and when to hang on to it. Too bad the 41-year-old could no longer could do a passible imitation of an NHL defenseman.

A silver lining among the sea of failed man-advantage opportunities? Derrick Pouliot possesses similar skills. For now, the black and gold will need to be patient while the former first-round pick irons out some kinks at Wilkes-Barre.

Hopefully, the process won’t take too long. The Pens sure could use him.