For the better part of a decade, for the better part of the last 10 years, Brian McNally,

the three things you could count on in this world were death, taxes, and the Caps power play.

The Caps power play has been as assured as anything for a decade now and they're in a bad

spot after an ofer against the flyers with just five shots on goal and if it was a one-off

rob it'd be fine uh but it was an entire month of december where they were not very good last

year they dropped to 12th this has been trending trending this way here the last year or two.

So it's something they've got to figure out. It's first world problems. I get it. They're

rolling in the standings and they're where they want to be. But ultimately, they rely on that

power play a lot and they need it to be better than it's been for a while. J.J. Regan, the concern meter on that power play a lot and they need it to be better than it's been for a while.

Jay J.J. Regan, the concern meter on that power play getting back to forget, you know,

the dominant unit in hockey just to where it's not a concern. Not only did it not perform

against Philadelphia, and McNally's right, this has been a trend for a while now. It actually cost them because they gave up the shorthanded goal that won the game. So where is your concern meter for that unit? You got to be concerned now, because as you said, it wasn't just, boy, it would have been nice to get a power play goal. It cost them this game. In a tie game in the second period, they had three opportunities and

gave up a goal. In the third period, they had two opportunities and still couldn't score.

And since the start of December, I actually looked this up. Since the start of December,

they are the 30th power play in the league. Is that right? Yes, at 13.7%. So this is, I mean,

that's not too good. That's what,, Bob. That's a pretty decent sample size. I think that's 17 games. That's a decent sample size. This is not just a valley. This is a bad turn for them. And face-offs were a big part of that and happened. They lost 71% of the face-offs against the Flyers. We'll break down the Flyers' loss in Philly. Keep in mind, the Flyers are a much better team at home than they are on the road where they have been absolute garbage this year. We'll also break down a very convincing win over a very young and bad Ottawa Senators team. Plus, I spoke with Craig Button, who is over at the World Juniors for two weeks of his life

and covered Connor McMichael and talked to Connor McMichael and wait until you hear how he raves

about the Cap's top prospect coming off his five-gold performance and a gold medal run for

Team Canada at the World Juniors.

I'm Rob Carlin.

Catalyst Talk podcast starts now.

He's stars now.

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