Coming off a loss to Utah last night in which the Colorado Avalanche’s power play went goalless on three tries, there’s a lot of frustration in the fanbase about the man advantage. With Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, and Cale Makar on the unit, it shouldn’t be possible for it to struggle, right?
Wrong. Power plays go through ebbs and flows no matter the personnel, and the simple truth is those guys can be keyed on by penalty kills to minimize their effectiveness. Other coaches know that to slow this group down they have to take away the pass across from Nate to Mikko or vice versa, play tight on Cale, and clear rebounds before Valeri Nichushkin can bury them.