Power play gets back to basics to get back to scoring goals

Two games into the 2018-19 season, Tampa Bay Lightning fans wanted to know:
What's wrong with the power play?

The previous year, the Lightning power play was the best in franchise history, at least percentage wise. Connecting on 23.9 percent of its chances, the unit ranked third in the NHL and scored 66 goals.
But through the first two games, the power play had yet to find the back of the net, failing on eight chances. It was stagnant and unremarkable and did more to ignite the opponent's momentum than it's own. In a loss to Vancouver, the Canucks rallied after keeping the Bolts off the board on five power-play opportunities and went on to score four times in the third period to turn a 1-0 deficit into a 4-1 victory. Had the Lightning connected on just one of those five chances, it's likely they would still be undefeated.
"The game probably could have got away from us if they got a few on the power play but our killers did a great job tonight," Vancouver head coach Travis Green said after his team's victory Thursday at AMALIE Arena.
So the Lightning went back to basics Friday in practice, drilling the power play exhaustively through much of the training session. They also went back to a personnel alignment they'd had success with the previous season, moving Alex Killorn between the circles on the first unit and sending Brayden Point to the second unit where he could be more of a creator.
The result was impressive.

The Lightning scored four times on the power play over their seven opportunities Saturday against Columbus, part of an eight-goal explosion and an 8-2 rout of the Blue Jackets. Point and Killorn each netted a power-play goal in their new role. Yanni Gourde got the breakthrough power-play goal at 18:37 of the opening period to give the Lightning a three-goal advantage at the first intermission, and J.T. Miller pushed home one more power-play goal with 0.2 seconds remaining in regulation for good measure.
When the Lightning returned to the practice ice Monday, Killorn and Point were again in their new roles. Well, their old new roles
Why tinker with success, right?
"I think we had a little bit more of a shooter's mentality, so that helped us," Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. "But eventually, we were third…in the league last year for a reason. Those guys, they have a pretty good feel out there for how to play on the power play, and we felt it was just a matter of time. We probably wish we could have traded one of those in for the Vancouver game, but as you know it doesn't work that way. We've just got to build on it and keep going."
The Lightning watched a lot of video prior to the Columbus game, highlighting what worked last season so they could apply it to their game as well as what wasn't working this season so they could eliminate it.
"We saw that we didn't direct the puck at their net, and I think that's the main thing," said Bolts forward Yanni Gourde, who scored the team's first power-play goal of the season in the first period against Columbus, ending a streak of nine-straight power-play opportunities without a goal to start 2018-19. "We had success last year because we shot the puck and we had people net front. That's how we scored goals in that game. It kind of came back because we saw video and we saw what worked last year and we've got to get inside and get body position around the crease, and that's what we did."

When the Lightning entered the Columbus game, they ranked dead last in the NHL for power-play production and were one of six teams without a power-play goal.
After scoring four times against Columbus, they now rank tied for eighth in the league at 26.7 percent.
The team's confidence wasn't shaken with its power play failures from the first two games. The Lightning knew it was only a matter of time before the power play got on track because, well, the unit's just too good not to.
"I think we've played in this league long enough, typically it doesn't happen in the beginning of the season, but it was only two games," Killorn said. "I think you start to get worried when it gets four or five games. That's when you really start to worry. We did a good job making adjustments, so it didn't go that far.