Broken record: Flyers’ power play keeps skipping at worst possible time

RALEIGH, N.C. -- The Philadelphia Flyers haven't had a good power play in a decade. 

This isn't new news. 

But it's important to bring it up, again, after the Flyers were shut out 3-0 by the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals on Saturday. 

That's because the Flyers were afforded four power play opportunities against the Hurricanes and went 0-for-4. 

The 0-fer has become routine for the Flyers. But there was another zero that was equally alarming. 

And that was the number of shots on goal on the first three opportunities with a man advantage.

They did get one whole shot through on Carolina goalie Frederik Andersen on the final power play chance of the game, but that was late in the third period and the score was already 3-0 and the Flyers were all but beaten at that point, so that lone shot could best be quantified as too little, too late. 

"The power play is interesting because I thought we actually moved it fairly well," said Travis Konecny. "We just didn't execute. We had a chance there where (Carolina defenseman K'Andre Miller slid at me. I had an easy play and I just got to execute."

Konecny is right that they moved the puck well -- which you have to do on the power play. It's not just a shooting gallery. You do have to get the opposing penalty kill out of their structure and find an area to exploit, and often times it's just a split second in time to make that happen, but that's how goals are scored. 

But you also have finish a play to make it count, and to finish it, you have to shoot it, and that's where the Flyers all too often miss their opportunity window. They too often are looking to make another pass, or make a deke, or take too long to make a decision and the window closes. 

It's killing them. In the playoffs the Flyers are now 2 for 21 on the power play. The 9.5% success rate is even worse than the regular season where their 15.7% ranked dead last in the NHL. 

"You got to make a play," said an exasperated Rick Tocchet after the game. It's something that is obviously eating at him and it's something that he and his coaches have been preaching to the players but it's just not sunk in yet. "There are plays to be made, you just got to make them. They're going to go long body or they're going to slide. You got to go around that guy. Those are plays you just have to make.

"That's the one thing we've talked about. You have to know what's going to happen before it comes. It's like chess, right? You need to [think] two moves ahead. It's no different. Their [penalty kill] is fast. It comes right at you. But there were some plays where we even had the guy in the slot had [the puck]  and it was one ... two... it took him three [moments] to get a shot there. You got to play quick against this team."

The Flyers don't have many margins for error against Carolina. It was quite evident in Game 1. As good as the Flyers are at 5-on-5 play, the Hurricanes are even better. It means they have to take advantage of power play opportunities more than usual. In Game 1, they came up small. 

And while the expectation for the power play, because of how historically bad it's been for so long, is a pretty low bar, the Flyers are still going to need to exceed it if they want to have any chance to beat the Hurricanes.