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In this week’s Eastern Edge, we’ll be taking a look at power-play production from the Atlantic Division. I’ve listed five players from each team that see the greatest percentage of their team’s total power-play time (PP TOI%) and provided a few observations for each team.

Boston Bruins

The Bruins had the best power play in October, converting on 31-percent of their chances. During that first month of the season, David Pastrnak put up 10 power-play points, while Brad Marchand and Torey Krug each had eight. Their power-play totals are still impressive, but keep in mind that their numbers are slightly inflated by a hot start.

Torey Krug does not get enough credit for the offense he’s provided this season. Among defensemen, only Victor Hedman has tallied more points with the man advantage.

David Pastrnak is the trigger man on Boston’s PP, which only makes sense considering he leads the league with 31 goals – 15 of which were scored on the power play. To give you some perspective, the only other player with a double-digit power-play goal total is James Neal who has 12.

Buffalo Sabres

Buffalo’s power play got off to a red-hot start as they converted on 30-percent of their opportunities, leading the league with 14 power-play goals in the month of October. Since then, the Sabres’ power play has been the worst in the league, converting on just 10.8-percent of their chances between November 1^st and January 6^th.

The emergence of Victor Olofsson has come at the expense of Jeff Skinner. Last year, Skinner was one of the primary shooters on the power play, he took 59 shots with the man advantage and registered eight goals. Halfway through this season, he’s only taken 22 shots and doesn’t have a single power play goal. Olofsson has replaced Skinner as the trigger man, the 24-year-old rookie has taken 34 shots and scored nine goals with the man advantage.

Detroit Red Wings

If you have a member of the Red Wings on your fantasy roster, chances are you aren’t expecting a lot of production with the man advantage. Dylan Larkin led the team with power-play points last year and he had just 15 in 76 games.

Tyler Bertuzzi has taken a huge step forward this season. He went from seeing 40.4-percent of the team’s power-play time to 59.3-percent and already has nine tallies after registering just six in 73 games last year.

While Cholowski has seen the greatest share of power-play time among Detroit’s defensemen, Filip Hronek is close behind at 51.2-percent. Hronek has been more productive than Cholowski, putting up seven points with the man advantage.

Florida Panthers

Only the Lightning had a better power play than the Panthers last year as Florida scored on 26.8-percent of their chances. They’ve still been pretty good this season, with a success rate of 23.3-percent.

Mike Hoffman led the Panthers with 17 power-play goals last season, a total which ranked fourth in the league. Halfway through the 2019-2020 campaign, he’s scored just five times when Florida is up a man. Hoffman is still being used as the trigger man on the team’s top PP unit as he’s taken 44 shots. To offer some perspective, Barkov ranks second on the team with 28 power-play shots. Don’t be surprised to see a few more of Hoffman’s shots hit the back of the net during the second half.

Yandle continues to produce with the man advantage – only Victor Hedman has more power-play points so far.

Montreal Canadiens

Last year, the Canadiens had the second-worst power play in the league, scoring on just 13.3-percent of their chances. They’ve been much better this season, with a success rate of 21.7-percent. Despite the improvement, there’s a significant difference in their performance at home and on the road. They have the league’s best road power play (tied with St. Louis), cashing in on 29.2-percent of their opportunities. In contrast, they’ve converted on 16.4 percent of their power plays at the Bell Centre.

You’ll notice that unlike most teams in the Atlantic, Montreal doesn’t give one power-play unit the lion’s share of ice time. No one on the team averages three or more minutes with the man advantage, but 10 players average over two minutes. It’s worth mentioning that Jonathan Drouin was averaging 2:37 of power-play time when he was in the lineup, but that worked out to just 48.9-percent of the team’s total power-play time. Essentially, his average is inflated because he’s only played 19 games, during which the team was seeing more minutes with the man advantage. That’s why it’s important to look at percentage of total power-play time, which tells us that Drouin wasn’t actually being used more frequently than his teammates.

Ilya Kovalchuk saw a prominent role on the power play in his first game with the Canadiens on Monday. It’s interesting that he was on the same unit as Shea Weber, as both have strong one-timers, so you’d expect them to be split up in order to have one trigger man on each unit.

Ottawa Senators

Ottawa’s power-play has converted on a league-worst 11.4-percent of their chances this year.  The Senators had a success rate of 20.4-percent last season as their power-play was much more effective while Mark Stone and Matt Duchene were still on the team. The five players who saw the greatest share of Ottawa’s power-play time in 2018-19 were Thomas Chabot, Bobby Ryan, Brady Tkachuk, Stone and Duchene. Ryan put up an impressive 16 points with the man advantage but doesn’t have a single one this season.

Anthony Duclair and Tyler Ennis were seeing just about a minute and a half of power-play time last year, so their increased roles should help boost their offensive output.

Jean-Gabriel Pageau took on a power-play role in the second quarter of the campaign as he went from seeing just 7-percent of the team’s total power-play time to 41-percent – a jump from 30 seconds to two minutes. Ottawa’s power-play percentage improved from a league-worst 8.8-percent to a less embarrassing 14.0 percent between the first and second quarter.

Tampa Bay Lightning

The Lightning had the best power-play in the league last year with a success rate of 28.2-percent. They’ve been just as good this season, cashing in on 28.8-percent of their opportunities – only the Oilers have been better (29.2-percent).

Only nine players in the league have more power-play points than Nikita Kucherov, as he’s tallied 18 through 40 games. With that being said, he led the league with 48 points on the man advantage last year and Is nowhere near as productive.

Victor Hedman leads all defensemen in power-play production as he’s tallied 19 points with the man advantage through 39 games. He had 25 power-play points in 70 games last year, so this extra offensive output on the PP should help boost his point totals.

Toronto Maple Leafs

Toronto has the best power play in the league since Sheldon Keefe took over as head coach on November 21^st, with an insane success rate of 35.6-percent. They had scored on just 17.6-percent of their chances under Mike Babcock’s supervision. Unlike Babcock, Keefe has opted to stack his top unit and give them the lion’s share of power-play minutes. Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews, John Tavares, William Nylander and Tyson Barrie have all been seeing over 70-percent of the team’s total power-play time. Under Babcock, no one saw more than 65-percent and most of the top unit sat within a range of 50-60-percent.

Since Keefe is using Barrie on the top unit, Morgan Rielly’s production has suffered over the past few weeks. Rielly is seeing just 37.1-percent of the team’s total power-play time after seeing 63.4-percent of it under Babcock. Rielly has registered just two points with the man advantage over his last 22 games and will be hard-pressed to match the 21 power-play points he tallied last year.