How can the Flyers have such a good power play on the road (25.2 percent during the regular season), but when they get the man advantage at home they’re so ineffective (15.1 percent)?
Well, obviously, it’s their fans’ fault.
From CSN Philly:
Team captain Claude Giroux has said this many times about the power play, and he’s dead on: “The fans get on us pretty hard at home.”
“We have to be patient,” Giroux said. “We forget to stick with what we do. We’re a patient power play and we wait for opportunities. We can’t rush it. We need to go back and play our power play.”
Added coach Craig Berube: “When you are at home, there is more pressure to perform with fans and all. We’ve got to make sure we are being simple first of all and not forcing things.”
Just so everybody’s clear, the Flyers aren’t actually blaming their fans; Jakub Voracek made sure to clarify he was kidding after joking, “It’s a little harder when 19,000 people yell to shoot after 20 seconds on the power play.”
What they’re saying is they need to block out the noise. After all, there isn’t a team in the NHL that doesn’t get urged to shoot the puck on the power play when at home. The fans in Philadelphia are just a bit louder about it maybe.
The Flyers went 2-for-3 with the man advantage during Sunday’s 4-2 over the Rangers. On the road.