Based on data analytics and coaching, the Avalanche is almost guaranteeing an improved power play this season.
The Avs, who led the NHL in scoring at 3.52 goals per game last season, finished eighth with a 22.7% power play. But with right-shot forward J.T. Compher joining the first unit as the bumper/low slot guy in the middle from the start, they hope to increase that to at least 25% or exceed the 2021 league-leading Edmonton Oilers (27.6%) by the end of the season.
“It’s a good opportunity,” Compher said of his new special team’s role.
Colorado coach Jared Bednar began last season with left-shot forward Nazem Kadri in the middle on the No. 1 power play, with defenseman Cale Makar running the unit from the high slot, Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen on the wings and Gabe Landeskog as the crease-front presence or at the end line on the right side of the net.
Bednar ultimately replaced Kadri with right-shot forward Joonas Donskoi and the unit performed better because Donskoi had more one-time shots off short passes from the left-shooting Rantanen and Landeskog. Donskoi also served as a decoy for MacKinnon, a tremendous right-shot shooter from the left wing.
Donskoi was selected by Seattle in the expansion draft and Compher is his replacement on what is a lethal power play on paper.
“A right-shot guy makes all the difference in the world for me,” Bednar said of the man in the middle. “We’ve had lefties in there before (and) our power play clicked along at 17-18%. Teams want to leak out on Mac when Cale gets the puck. So there’s a pocket in the middle. If you watch us at all in the second half of the year, once we put a righty in there, it would go deep down to Mikko and there’s a big pocket that we’re creating scoring chances from.”
Analytics have proved that point.
“Doing the math on it, we’ve had two B-plus chances in there a night for 30 games (last season). If you stretch it over 82 (games this season), it’s 160-some chances for a righty in there. I’d like to see 15 goals out of there. We didn’t score enough out of there last year so it’s up to the shooter to make sure they’re putting some good shots on net. But there’s lots of opportunity for a righty that can rip it there. The lefty just doesn’t get the opportunities. He can’t one-time it.”
Compher has a terrific wrist shot, as well as a quick slap shot, and he’s bigger and more aggressive than Donskoi in retrieving pucks in tight spaces and keeping the power play alive in the offensive zone. He will look to one-time feeds from Rantanen and Landeskog or be the decoy for those guys to send it to MacKinnon on the left wing.
“Two lefties on the right side, it will give me a one-timer in the middle if I can be a shooting option there,” Compher said. “It’s going to give Nate some more room on the flank. We want to give him as much time as possible … I work every day to take advantage of it and make sure I’m working on my shot in the slot and also getting pucks back. The more I can get extra opportunities and puck touches for those top guys on the power play, the better off we’re going to be.
“That’s part of the role is retrieving pucks, whether it’s shots or rebounds, or supporting those guys if penalty kill comes hard into the corner. If I can create extra possessions, keep them from clearing it, and get it in our top guys’ hands we’re going to have more success and more goals on the power play.”
