Talking about the Washington Capitals' missing power play has become quite tedious this season. Yet, in a 3-2 loss to the Phoenix Coyotes Monday, the Capitals once again failed to score with the man advantage, going 0-for-5. The question still remains: when will the Capitals' power play strike again?
Consider the following: the Capitals are currently 16.2 percent on the power play this season, down from last year's 25.2. Since the Winter Classic (AKA the beginning of 2011), the Capitals are an abysmal 5-for-51 (9.8 percent). To put that into perspective, the Edmonton Oilers, who hold the NHL's worst power play, average 11.3 percent.
Alex Ovechkin is also suffering because of the missing power play. Ovechkin entered the season with 91 career power play goals for an average of about 18 per season. This season, Ovechkin only has three power play goals, with two of them coming in the same game, a 7-2 rout of the Calgary Flames October 30. None of them have come inside Verizon Center, which gives Caps fans even less to cheer about.
Head coach Bruce Boudreau has tried many things to wake up the dormant power play, but even he has no clue what to do. There is a direct correlation between the Capitals' lack of scoring and their power play. What once struck fear in the hearts of opponents has now been reduced to a comedy of errors. And unfortunately for the Caps, this is one power outage that Pepco can't fix.