The Ottawa Senators<\/a> power play is not good right now. Nor has been clicking for the entire 2023-24 season. They sit 26th at 15.9%. Last year, they had the second most power play goals in the league. But why? Here we take a look at a couple of remedies. Then we shall go into detail on the defence on the power play and hammer down their importance.<\/p>\n Quite frankly, there is a simple theory they should apply. When the power play is struggling, there are two specific tactics to apply. In practice, remove the defenders. Instead of practicing 5 on 4, keep removing defenders, and their sticks too if required, until the power play scores routinely. The second school of thought idea to apply has to do with the alignment. You need two defencemen on the ice, with opposite shots.<\/p>\n There is a key problem with the Senators power play philosophically, and that is their top-three offensive defencemen are all left shots. Those three are Thomas Chabot<\/a>, Jakob Chychrun<\/a>, and Jake Sanderson<\/a>. We did see in last night\u2019s game against the Florida Panthers, that Chabot and Chychrun were both out there on the top power play unit. This was actually an exciting prospect. Furthermore, you really see how deep this team\u2019s power play is potentially. The likes of Joshua Norris<\/a>, Brady Tkachuk<\/a>, Claude Giroux<\/a>, and Sanderson could not be found on the top unit. That\u2019s a riches of offensive skills just patiently waiting for their turn.<\/p>\n Anyway, back to the theory more properly, it starts defensively. You need pucks held in, and no threat of giving up short-handed opportunities. Despite not being an offensive guy, their best alignment would be Artem Zub<\/a> on the left side. The right side would not be entirely crucial, given their depth, but probably Chabot gets the nod for seniority and also experience playing alongside Zub over the years. Also, Chychrun leads the defence with 12 power play points, so he would work as the hot hand. Moreover, having two defences on the ice for the power play can be beneficial for the forwards. This ensures that the three you have out there, hopefully, have chemistry, but are essentially your best three offensive threats. Last night it was Tim Stutzle<\/a>, Vladimir Tarasenko<\/a> and to mix in a right shot, Drake Batherson<\/a>. Definitely fits for threats, as they can all be point-per-game players when they\u2019re hot.<\/p>\n In general, defencemen are very reliant on their point production from the power play. More so than forwards, because their playmaking opportunity is much higher. Looking at the leaders for power play points from defencemen in 2023-24, we have:<\/p>\nA Couple Remedies for the Ottawa Senators Power Play Struggles<\/h2>\n
So What Would the Alignment Be?<\/h3>\n
Looking at the Rest of the League<\/h3>\n