Power outage: Flames' power play continues to struggle

The Calgary Flames’ power play hasn’t looked very good for the entire season – they’ve scored just one goal on the power play in their last 29 chances.

Jonathan Huberdeau scored that goal against the Seattle Kraken on Nov. 20.

Head coach Ryan Huska says his team needs to start firing the puck on the net.

“More shots,” Huska said prior to Monday night’s game against the Vegas Golden Knights.

“More urgency to get it back and then right back to the net again. I think sometimes when the power play isn’t going well there’s a tendency to look for something better all the time when really it’s just ‘let’s simplify it for a little while and get some shot volume on our power play and make sure we’re hungry to get the loose pucks and rebounds.’”

GETTING ON THE SAME PAGE

The Flames have shown they can play with urgency five on five and Huska would like to see that roll over to the power play.

All too often this season, the Flames have been guilty of being too predictable, too slow, turning the puck over and losing too many face-offs in the offensive zone when they have the man advantage.

Elias Lindholm plays on the number one power-play unit. He says everyone has to be on the same page.

“I think when things aren’t going our way we’re trying to do too much and everyone wants to do well, but it’s tough when everyone isn’t on the same page and guys start doing their own thing,” Lindholm said.

CHANGES TO BOTH POWER-PLAY UNITS

The Flames will make some changes to both power-play units for Monday night’s game against the Golden Knights.

Rasmus Andersson wasn’t practicing with either unit. Noah Hanifin and Yegor Sharangovich will join Lindholm, Huberdau and Nazem Kadri on the number one unit.

Andrew Mangiapane and MacKenzie Weegar on are on the second unit along with Mikael Backlund, Connor Zary and Adam Ruzicka.

Kadri believes they can turn things around.

“Just being set and organized, I think that’s crucial,” Kadri said.

“We’ve had some meetings and we’re going to be prepared. I think when everyone is pulling on the same rope and on the same page and knowing exactly what they have to do I think it will come together a little better. So you know, we’ll improve.”

The puck drop for Monday night’s contest against the defending Stanley Cup champs will be a little after 7:30 pm.