Something is very wrong with the Ducks' power play
The Anaheim Ducks haven't converted with the man advantage in a very long time, and that has to be concerning for a club that at least temporarily relinquished home-ice advantage with a Game 1 loss to the Nashville Predators in the Western Conference Final on Friday night.
Related: Breaking down Ekholm's excellent effort before Neal's OT winner
The Ducks have gone six full games without scoring on the power play, and haven't tallied one in that situation since Jakob Silfverberg's goal in a Game 2 loss to the Edmonton Oilers in the second round back on April 28.
Anaheim has gone 21 consecutive power-play chances without scoring, and the Ducks are five-for-40 in these playoffs. That works out to a league-worst 12.5 percent success rate among teams still in the postseason.
There were four failed opportunities Friday night, and this about sums up how they went.
Ducks credited with one shot on power play.
- Helene Elliott (@helenenothelen) May 13, 2017
No shots on Ducks' power play.
- Helene Elliott (@helenenothelen) May 13, 2017
great stops by Rinne on Rakell and Getzlaf in quick succession.
- Helene Elliott (@helenenothelen) May 13, 2017
one shot for Ducks on that power play.
- Helene Elliott (@helenenothelen) May 13, 2017
The Ducks have survived and advanced to this point in spite of their paltry power play, which ranked 17th in the regular season, but it won't be easy to fix against the Predators, who boast the best penalty kill rate (89.3 percent) among teams still alive in the playoffs.
Anaheim's penalty kill isn't helping, either. The Ducks were fortunate to sweep the Calgary Flames in the first round despite allowing six goals on 16 opposing power-play chances, and Anaheim's 72.3 percent kill rate in the postseason is the worst among the four remaining clubs.
They've made it this far with weak special teams play, but they'll need to figure out a way to both score with the man advantage and stop allowing opponents to do so if they hope to get past Nashville and move on to the Stanley Cup Final.
Copyright (C) 2017 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.