John Tortorella was asked what's been different about the power play this year as opposed to last year. He reminded reporters that it wasn't a prolonged period of success in 2016-17.
"We started off fast last year," he said. "The last 25-30 games, it was a struggle."
He's right. The Blue Jackets were humming along around the 30 percent mark until Christmas, and in the second half of the season, teams started to smarten up and plan for the lethal Columbus power play. They're not having anywhere near that kind of success to start 2017-18, but if there's something to take note of, their 8-4-0 record has been with no credit to the power play.
Entering tonight's game against the Florida Panthers, the Blue Jackets are dead last (8.6 percent) in power play efficiency – a full 3.5 percentage points behind the 30th-place Anaheim Ducks. It's been ugly at times and downright frustrating at others, so this week, Tortorella has tried to strip all the noise away and focus his team on the basic elements of the power play.
On Monday night vs. the Boston Bruins, the Blue Jackets looked lost on the power play. No structure, no rhythm, nothing dangerous. It was individual and not collective.
"The last game we played, our power play had zero setup," Tortorella said. "The concept, the foundation that we did have even (when) it was struggling was out the window in the last game. That's just frustration. We had a very extensive meeting (Wednesday) before we went on the ice as far as explaining roles, explaining the concept. Hopefully we'll get something done here."
One of the noticeable aspects of the power play struggle has been Zach Werenski's ability to create shots from the center point. Last season, his seeing-eye wrist shots created trouble for penalty killing units, which got broken down by the odd-man situations created by rebounds.
"It's just defining roles and simplifying things," Tortorella said. "Very rarely are we even looking to take shots from the middle of the ice, and we've got a pretty good guy there in (Werenski) who can open himself, change angles just to get some shots down to the blue. It just seems like the rule of thumb is we need to make three seam passes before we take a shot, and that's got to stop."
Two days of practice and meetings were an opportunity to reset, have dialogue between coaches and players and understand what's expected, Tortorella said. The coaching staff wants to give players the freedom to make plays, but not without adhering to the structure they've put in place with their 1-3-1 formation.
"They're creative people, and we listened to them a little bit, but we also have to give them a foundation that they have to live by, then we let them play," Tortorella said. "It was individual stuff the last game. We're very fortunate...we find a way to win another game without our power play."
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