When the Avalanche’s first power-play unit takes the ice, four-fifths of its 2001 championship team is present. The 2000-01 Avs, who scored an NHL-best 118 points, are among the better teams in league history, and Joe Sakic, Milan Hejduk, Alex Tanguay and Rob Blake are alumni.
The line of Sakic, Hejduk and Tanguay was the highest-scoring in the league that season (274 combined points), and Blake was a point man on the power play, along with Hall of Famer Ray Bourque.
So the Avs’ recent struggles on the power play are disconcerting. The Avs were 1-for-15 on a two-game road trip to Vancouver and Calgary and have been spotty much of the season with the man advantage.
Yet the Avs remain among the highest-scoring teams in the league despite a lack of power-play punch.
“It’s something we’ve got to get better at,” said Tanguay, who alternated with Peter Forsberg on the first power-play unit for much of 2000-01. “We’ve been doing a good job (killing penalties), but we’re not doing as much as we can on the PP. With the new rules now, it’s important that we have a good PP.”
Lately, a pattern has emerged on the power play: The defensemen have had some trouble getting a good outlet pass to a forward, either from a bad pass or from forechecking pressure. Often against the Canucks and Flames, a defenseman attempted a long connecting pass through the neutral zone to a forward, only to see the pass deflected by a checker or the forward fumble it away.
The Flames pressured the puck carrier on the power play more than any other team Colorado has seen this season, with great success. When a team plays a high-pressure style, it is imperative for the point men to fire pucks at the net and for the forwards to crash the net in hopes of a rebound. Against the Flames, the Avs often tried for the extra pass, and the play broke up.
“We’ve had stretches where we’ve been good on the PP,” Tanguay said. “But you need to be consistent. Lately we haven’t been. We just have to focus harder on getting pucks at the net and putting pressure on the defense.”
Second-year defenseman John- Michael Liles, a point man on the power play, has cooled a bit after a hot start, though he remains second on the team in overall scoring, with 16 points (five goals) in 16 games.
“We’ve got to pick it up a little on the PP,” Liles said. “The last two games, we haven’t gotten the job done.”
Adrian Dater can be reached at 303-820-5454 or adater@denverpost.com.
