Many assumed the trade acquisition of John-Michael Liles on New Year's Day would finally boost the Carolina Hurricanes' chemistry-flashing but largely unreliable power play over the hump.
Instead, the man-advantage unit has only further devolved into a utterly useless and momentum-killing mess—and it's dragging the Hurricanes' once-promising postseason optimism down to the cellar with it.
In two arguably season-killing losses this week to Buffalo and Dallas, the Canes have gone a fruitless 0-for-10 on the power play. Despite five opportunities in both games—well above their average per-game average—the unit has yet to find the back of the net since the Olympic break.
The dry spell knocks the Hurricanes to 28-for-207 on the season; that 13.5 conversion rate ranks 29th in the NHL, ahead of only Florida and behind such bottom-feeders as Calgary, Buffalo and Edmonton.
By comparison, the Canes have scored on a goal in 8.2 percent of their 1,770 total two-minute segments of play (59 games of 60 minutes each) at all situations this season.
The addition of Liles, who came to R ...
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Article written by Mark Jones
Carolina Hurricanes: Ineffective Power Play Ruining Playoff Hopes
February 28th, 2014 by Mark Jones Leave a reply »
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