The Tampa Bay Lightning will look to ignite a struggling power play when they host the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday night.
The Lightning are 1-for-11 with the man advantage over their last four games, including 0-for-2 in their 6-2 loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday.
“It’s just being simple and shooting pucks,” Tampa Bay’s Jake Guentzel said after the struggles vs. Vancouver. “It’s creating traffic and trying to break them down that way. We’ve just got to make sure we’re doing the little things right.”
The Lightning got those small details correct against the New Jersey Devils in a 5-1 win on Tuesday night, going 2-for-3 on the power play as Guentzel netted a pair of goals.
Tampa Bay did it without coach Jon Cooper, who was gone due to a personal matter. He turned the head-coaching duties over to assistant Jeff Halpern, a former center for the franchise.
Guentzel picked up the slack against the Devils, who went 0-for-4 with the man advantage.
Tampa Bay, which is 9-3-0 in its last dozen games, is clicking at just 17.7% on the power play this season. They were fifth in the NHL at 25.9% last season.
“The past few games I thought we had some decent looks,” Halpern said. “The times that we’ve been struggling, it’s not being able to set up, not being able to get recoveries or entries. Obviously tonight we won some faceoffs, which made it easier.”
Guentzel leads the team with 11 goals, one more than former Hart Trophy recipient Nikita Kucherov.
With Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl on its top power-play unit, Edmonton has not had a problem scoring on the power play (30.8%), third overall behind the Pittsburgh Penguins (34.1%) and Dallas Stars (31.9%) before Wednesday’s matchups.
Sidelined over the first 19 games with a wrist injury sustained in last season’s Stanley Cup Final vs. the Florida Panthers, Zach Hyman has played in three games on the third line with Adam Henrique and Trent Frederic.
“You’re always trying to find the emotion, find the passion,” Hyman said on NHL Face Off on TNT before his club’s 7-4 loss at the Washington Capitals on Wednesday. “It’s a long season, but you’ve got to find it, especially in the position we’re in. We’ve got to find our game here quick.”
After a game-high 11 hits in his season debut against the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday, Hyman responded with his second assist in the defeat to Washington.
Edmonton is 2-3-0 on its seven-game trip and 4-8-2 overall on the road.
McDavid has nine goals and 23 assists this season, while Draisaitl has 14 and 12, respectively.
Defenseman Darnell Nurse tallied twice, Draisaitl scored and set up a goal, and McDavid had two assists on Wednesday.
“Every time we pushed, they were able to find a way to capitalize on a chance,” Nurse said. “It’s frustrating for our group. We battled back. We haven’t been able to battle back many times this season. We were able to find some goals and keep ourselves in the game late.”
–Field Level Media
