What To Watch For: Power Play Zone Time

Coming into the season, there was a lot of excitement about finally having a high scoring power play like the ones AV coached out in Vancouver. Granted, it's only been one game so far, but we already have one special teams goal to our name thanks to Marc Staal. So the question really is... was the power play last night an immediate improvement over the Torts/Sully era of power play? To make a comparison, we will be looking into how the time on the power play was spent, whether it was in the offensive or defensive zones.

The theory of the power play is simple. Spend lots of time in the offensive zone and generate shots, and you will get more goals. If you are spending a lot of time in the defensive zone, you're either not getting penetration to create scoring opportunities, or you're giving up shorthanded attempts. As such, we will be comparing Thursday's 25% successful power play to the 25% successful power play from February 17, 2013, when Sullivan ran the show.