Picture this: it’s a 2-1 game at PPG Paints Arena. In the heat of the battle of Pennsylvania, the Penguins have a power play to get the insurance marker in the third period.

For 1 minute and 59 seconds, the Penguins pass the puck around the perimeter. With skaters moving around the Flyers’ zone, the Penguins have constant pressure, but once again, cannot find the back of the net.

Instead, the team’s worst fear comes true. With a shorthanded break as Pittsburgh’s power play is about to expire, Philadelphia’s Scott Laughton races towards the net and pots a shorthanded goal to tie the game.

The air was let out of the building as the Penguins had surrendered all the momentum to the Flyers. A disappointed home crowd watched yet again as their favorite team’s power play once again failed to score, and this time, yielded a goal against.

A few moments later, Philly would show the Penguins how it’s done, scoring on their power play chance to take the lead at 3-2.

Though Jake Guentzel would send the game to overtime with seconds left, the Flyers would win it in a shootout, 4-3.

With an 0/5 effort on the power play last night for the Penguins, they are now 0 for their last 27 power play attempts. Their last power play goal came all the way back on November 11th, in a 4-0 win against the Buffalo Sabres.

For reference, that was 10 whole games ago, and 30 total periods ago.

Their power play performance has been unacceptable all season, but as the team continues to middle in the standings, the power plays needs a change, and fast.

Teams are no longer afraid to take penalties against the Penguins. Any competent head coach will never encourage their team to take penalties, but if it prevents a goal or a great scoring chance, by all means do it.

All the Penguins will do is waste two minutes off the clock, and there’s a decent chance that they will kill any momentum that they have.

The power play was a talking point for this team last season, as the Penguins finished the year at 21.7% on the power play. That was good for 14th in the NHL last season. A team with as much talent as they do on their top power play unit should never be low.

In his first season as general manager for Pittsburgh, Kyle Dubas sought to boost the power play and offense from the blue line, adding Norris Trophy winner Erik Karlsson via the largest trade (number of players/assets wise) in franchise history.

Despite already having Kris Letang serve as power play quarterback, the new front office hoped that the addition of Karlsson could aid the power play in getting back to where they should be.

It has not worked out, and in fact, the Penguins’ power play has regressed severely, even from their underwhelming showing last season.

It is definitely not all the fault of Erik Karlsson, but the defenseman has not exactly pulled his weight on the top unit. But the rest of the unit: Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jake Guentzel, and Bryan Rust/Rickard Rakell have all been equally as bad on the man advantage.

Their problems consist of the same ones that have plagued them for years. The Penguins are far too scared to shoot the puck. A thousand perimeter passes will never work on a power play. The players are always looking for that perfect shot, that pretty goal, that quite simply almost never exists.

For the sake of not sounding like every fan from the crowd screaming “shoot!”, I’ll instead say here that they should do less passing.

You are never going to score on the power play if you pass around the perimeter as often as the Penguins do. That’s just a fact. They have to be willing to do more than that.

And it’s not even like the Penguins can point to a flawless effort of preventing shorthanded goals by playing this safe. The Penguins have allowed multiple shorthanded goals this season, evident that their “safe” play on the power play doesn’t even do that.

When he was hired ahead of the 2020-21 season, Todd Reirden was assigned to oversee the team’s power play. The Penguins have given no indication that he is not still working with that unit, and if that is still his job, he should no longer be doing that.

Pittsburgh’s power play has been underwhelming for years, but under Reirden, things have gone from bad to worse, particularly this season.

Listen, I understand that he is not telling the players to suck on the ice when they have more players than the opposing team, but in the sports world, you can only do two things: change the players, or change the coaches.

The Penguins already did the first part. They added Erik Karlsson. Now, with things still not working, it’s time to try the other option.

The Penguins need a new coach to oversee the power play. Reirden’s ideas simply aren’t working. They need someone who can spark the troops better, and maybe if Reirden gets the axe, maybe that wakes the team up as well.

Their power play, at this point, is doing more than be unproductive, it’s actively hurting the team. That shorthanded goal was a backbreaker for the Penguins, and allowed the Flyers back into a game they ultimately won.

Had the Penguins scored on any of their 5 chances on the power play, this game would have been a completely different story.

At 11-10-2, it’s far past time for the Penguins to still be bogged down by things that should be a strength for them. The longer this goes on, the worse it gets. Change has to happen, and it is has to happen now.

If they continue this way, the Penguins will not make the playoffs.

(Featured photo by Charles LeClaire/USA Today Sports)