{"id":286997,"date":"2025-11-12T09:34:25","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T09:34:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/286997\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T09:34:25","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T09:34:25","slug":"avalanche-power-play-nathan-mackinnon-going-against-nhl-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/286997\/","title":{"rendered":"Avalanche power play, Nathan MacKinnon going against NHL history"},"content":{"rendered":"

A friend the other day suggested turning the Avalanche\u2019s power play<\/a> into something of a morbid drinking game.<\/p>\n

There was only one rule: Every time the Avs cycle the puck with the extra man<\/a>, you take a shot. I countered that he\u2019d be sloshed by the first intermission and unconscious by the second.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we should have a shooting mentality,\u201d Victor Olofsson, the Avalanche\u2019s amiable new winger, explained to me before Colorado hosted Anaheim late Tuesday night at Ball Arena. \u201cBut there are obviously times where you can find someone in a better spot to shoot the puck, and you want to look for that.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust shooting it and maybe getting a couple more ugly goals, just rebounds and tips, is going to help us too. So, I definitely agree that we could shoot the puck more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Olofsson\u2019s Avs are, to use the scientific term, kind of \u2026 weird. But a good weird, like Matt Smith\u2019s version of BBC\u2019s \u201cDoctor Who\u201d<\/a> \u2014 as opposed to a bad weird, like Matt Smith\u2019s Daemon Targaryen from HBO\u2019s \u201cHouse of the Dragon.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

While the Western Conference is chasing Colorado, the Avs are chasing some seriously wacky history. Heading into the Ducks game, Colorado was averaging four goals per contest, tops in the league, putting them on a pace to score 328 goals on the season. All while, paradoxically, carrying around a 17.5% power-play conversion rate, which ranked 24th in the league as of Tuesday afternoon.<\/a><\/p>\n

If that sounds quirky, it is. Per Sports-Reference.com, only one other NHL team has scored at least 328 times while also carrying a team power play conversion rate of under 18%: the 1992-93 Canucks (346 goals, PP of 17.3%). Those Canucks wound up getting knocked out of the \u201993 division finals by Wayne Gretzky and the Kings.<\/a><\/p>\n

Case in point \u2014 or rather, two points: Your Avs went to Edmonton last weekend, home of the two-time reigning Western Conference champs, and blitzed the Oilers by a 9-1 score. Your same Avs did this while somehow going 0 for 7 on the power play.<\/p>\n

Again: Weird. Loco. Looney Tunes.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, it\u2019s kind of crazy,\u201d second-line center Brock Nelson told me Tuesday. \u201cPower play-wise, I mean, yeah, you look at the talent we have, and I think you can only expect the number to kind of keep creeping up and be a bigger factor for us.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you look at an Edmonton game \u2026 and you look at the chances we had, the one-timers we had, some slot looks, it\u2019s like, \u2018OK, that could have easily been 2 for 7, 3 for 7, you\u2019re getting the looks.\u2019 So, it\u2019s sticking with it \u2026 know that at any moment they could snowball and (we) go 4 for 5 and have a different conversation. I still think they\u2019ve been generating a lot of momentum for us, so it\u2019s been good.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also been curious. Savvy Avs observers have noted the absence (again) of Mikko Rantanen<\/a>, a winger who gave the burgundy and blue three Hall-of-Fame marksmen on the PP1 unit, a weapon that discouraged penalty-killers from clinging too close to Nathan MacKinnon or Cale Makar. Rantanen, whose trade to Carolina last winter backfired in the playoffs<\/a>, is still the Avs\u2019 franchise leader in power-play goals since 2018-19, with 84, besting both MacKinnon (75) and Makar (41).<\/p>\n

Maybe Marty Necas eventually fills that Moose-sized hole on Jared Bednar\u2019s PP1. Maybe there\u2019s more juice to be had from a big-bodied screener such as Val Nichushkin, mucking up a goalie\u2019s sight lines, or from Artturi Lehkonen, a classic poacher and crease-wrecker down low.<\/p>\n

Maybe there\u2019s a wrinkle that makes us forget former Avs assistant coach Ray Bennett, the fall guy for Colorado\u2019s 13.6% PP clip during that series loss to Dallas.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if it\u2019s too different (from last season),\u201d Nelson said of the Avs\u2019 PP gameplan. \u201cObviously, you\u2019re probably just figuring out different tendencies of guys. But I think it\u2019s still just the same plan of attack and just trying to get inside. \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel pretty confident the (conversion) number\u2019s gonna go up. \u2026 There (are) gonna be games where we\u2019re gonna go 3 for 4, 4 for 5, be a difference-maker. All of a sudden that (conversion) number at the end is obviously somewhere in the 20s. It looks better.\u201d<\/p>\n

It would be hard to look worse, mind you. For reference, the Avs posted conversion rates of at least 22% or better for five straight seasons before this one.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at it in different ways, it\u2019s pretty impressive that we are where we are and not had a great power play so far,\u201d Olofsson said. \u201cI mean, I\u2019d rather have it that way, that we have a really good 5-on-5 game and we don\u2019t have to rely on the power play. But obviously, we want to step up in games that are tight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Does it matter? Well, yes. And no. Of the last 10 Western Conference representatives in the Stanley Cup Final, eight posted a regular-season PP conversion rate of 20% or better. Four of the 10 finished among the NHL\u2019s top 10 that season, five were in the middle tier, and only one had a bottom-10 PP rate.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, it\u2019s fun that people care,\u201d Olofsson said. \u201cIt wouldn\u2019t be fun if no one cared, either. But no, it\u2019s not a huge weight on us right now since we\u2019re playing so well and winning games. But there are going to be times where (the power play) definitely needs to step up and win games for us. And I\u2019m confident that we\u2019re going to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Want more Avalanche news? Sign up for the Avalanche Insider to get all our NHL analysis.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A friend the other day suggested turning the Avalanche\u2019s power play into something of a morbid drinking game.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[109666,1222,151099,17718,14384,97481,1836,69843,3832,1223,1840,127416,4142,6755,47314,2558,67453,65879,39780,385,8223,99,362,118362,14693,73880,17814],"class_list":{"0":"post-286997","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-artturi-lehkonen","9":"tag-avalanche","10":"tag-avalanche-takes","11":"tag-ball-arena","12":"tag-bo-nix","13":"tag-brock-nelson","14":"tag-broncos","15":"tag-cale-makar","16":"tag-colorado","17":"tag-colorado-avalanche","18":"tag-denver","19":"tag-doctor-who","20":"tag-front-range","21":"tag-hockey","22":"tag-jared-bednar","23":"tag-latest-headlines","24":"tag-mikko-rantanen","25":"tag-more-avalanche-news","26":"tag-nathan-mackinnon","27":"tag-nhl","28":"tag-sean-keeler","29":"tag-sports","30":"tag-sports-columnists","31":"tag-stanley-cup","32":"tag-victor-olofsson","33":"tag-wayne-gretzky","34":"tag-western-conference"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}