Canucks have one of NHL's worst power plays this month
The Vancouver Canucks power play has been going through a rough stretch.
The unit is scoring on just 11% of its opportunities in February thus far. That number is good for 27th across all NHL teams over that time frame.
The recent struggles mean that the team is now scoring on 22.99% of its power-play chances throughout the entire season. This month’s slump has knocked them out of the league’s top-10 units as they are 12th at the moment.
The Canucks have scored a grand total of just three power-play goals this month. They’ve also allowed three short-handed goals, making them just one of two teams, alongside the Columbus Blue Jackets, without a positive power-play goal differential in February.
The special teams issues have corresponded with a slump in the team’s performance as they’ve lost three straight games for the first time this year. They have a record of 4-4-1 in February, good for a points percentage of .500, far behind the .690 they’re clicking at for the year.
“We’ve got to start to instead of deferring shoot the puck, be a little more decisive,” said head coach Rick Tocchet after the team’s power play failed to score in a loss to the Colorado Avalanche.
“I don’t think we’re getting pucks to the net but we’ve got to make sure we start getting pucks to the net.”
Tocchet is right that the Canucks need to do a better job at getting shots through. The team ranks 19th in shots-for per 60 minutes on the power play this month.
With the NHL’s leading defence scorer, two forwards that rank in the top seven in points, and another player that has already reached the 30-goal mark, the Canucks have the pieces to put together a deadly unit.
There’s no reason to think that this slump should last for long and once it breaks, it should be a big help for a Canucks team looking to finish the season strong.
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