According to Buffalo Sabres assistant coach Seth Appert, the power play this year has been a “slow, steady march.”
Over the last two games, however, the pace of that march has picked up.
After starting the season 0-for-22 with the extra man on the ice, the Sabres have scored twice on the power play in their last two games, with both goals coming off the stick of Jason Zucker.
Appert broke down the power play’s progression following practice at KeyBank Center on Tuesday, crediting the recent success to improved details that have supplemented the Sabres’ skill.
“It’s been a slow, steady march of buying into the process of how we enter, how we get pucks back, how we attack retrievals, how we solve pressure out of retrievals, and all of those things need to be in order for the players to then allow their skill to shine,” Appert said.
“And so, I think we’ve done a better job of that. Not perfect. We’ve got a lot of work to do. And I think in the last five, six games, we’ve been converting all of that into scoring chances and then now a few of them have started going into the net.”
The Sabres have created 11 scoring chances in six power plays over the past two games, according to Natural Stat Trick. Zucker buried the rebound off a Tage Thompson shot against Detroit on Saturday, then batted in a Thompson shot out of mid-air against Florida on Monday.
Owen Power, who’s quarterbacked the second unit of late, pointed to the Sabres’ ability to win puck battles and maintain possession following missed shots as a key area of growth since the start of the season.
“When you're able to get multiple possessions out of a power play and kind of wear them down, you’re going to create way more, and eventually, the pucks are going to go in,” Power said.
On the Sabres’ second power play against the Panthers, they managed several scoring chances despite not burying one past goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. Dylan Cozens and JJ Peterka both had one-timers turned away while Thompson had a backdoor chance blocked.
“I think before when we weren't scoring a lot of times, it would just give the other team momentum, and we weren't really creating a lot of chances, especially early in the year,” Power said. “I think obviously the two goals help a lot, and it's so results-based. But, even when we don't score, I think we're doing a better job of creating chances and kind of turning the momentum to our side.”
The process of attempting to better the performance of the power play on the ice has occurred off the ice as well. Appert credited the Sabres’ leaders with helping maintain confidence as the group chipped away at improving the unit both in practice and in the video room.
“If you believe in what you’re doing and the players are bought into what they need to do, I do believe that results are going to come,” Appert said. “But yeah, it can be trying. I give our guys a lot of credit, especially the leaders, Dahlin, Thompson, Tuch and guys like that that they’ve come out and continued to attack some of the areas of deficiency.”
Here’s more from Tuesday’s practice.
