Rigamarole - A Foot In The Crease - Episode 3.11

www.afootinthecrease.com

Throughout the first fifteen games of the regular season, the Maple Leafs had to make due without Kyle Wellwood as worked his way back from abdominal surgery that he underwent in the offseason. During this time, it was clear that a key element was missing from the Maple Leafs power play. There was little creativity and poor puck movement on the man advantage which led to the Maple Leafs power play becoming very predictable. Predictability is one of the worst traits a power play can have because when a power play becomes predictable, it becomes very easy to shut down and that’s just what opponents were doing to the Maple Leafs power play.

Since Wellwood’s return, the Maple Leafs have scored with the man advantage in four of his six games. Wellwood himself has two. Not only is his scoring touch useful, but Wellwood’s imagination and passing ability makes a weapon out of Darcy Tucker and frees up even more room for Mats Sundin to operate. With more room, Mats Sundin becomes even more dangerous. As for Tucker, he is starting to get chances at the side of the goal that led to a twenty four goal season a year ago. Last night against Ottawa, his power play goal was the game winner.

The Maple Leafs power play is not out of the woods yet and is still classified as anemic by most people’s standards. However, with Wellwood’s return, it is starting to show signs of life and for a team that struggles to kill penalties as much as the Maple Leafs do, a successful power play is key to offsetting that deficiency. Several games throughout the course of the season have been lost as a result of being unable to capitalize with the man advantage. If Kyle Wellwood can continue to help reignite the power play, the Maple Leafs should see themselves in the win column a lot more regularly. But hey, all that was just rigamarole.