Rapidly improving penalty kill continues to be a weapon for the Flyers

The Flyers have not allowed a power-play goal in three games.

It helps that they didn’t spend any time in the penalty box against the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday, but the Flyers gave up five power-play opportunities to the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday.

Expanding the sample size to 10 games, the Flyers have conceded just three goals in 20 opposing power plays. The 85% kill rate since Jan. 5 puts the Flyers in the top 10 in the league. For the season, the Flyers’ penalty kill (77%) ranks No. 19 in the NHL.

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Being on the penalty kill is supposed to put you at a disadvantage. Instead, the Flyers have a league-high nine shorthanded goals this season. They use it to create an advantage.

In addition to the two shorthanded goals, scored by Scott Laughton and Rasmus Ristolainen, in the last 10 games, the team has been able to create momentum as well.

Against the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday, the Flyers looked out of sync — until they went on the penalty kill. For the first time, they looked aggressive and showed some jump, even though Laughton, Ivan Provorov, and Cam York were caught on the ice for 1 minute, 15 seconds of the penalty kill. They cleared it right away (letting Travis Konecny change), and when the Red Wings tried to come back up the ice, Laughton stalled them further with a takeaway in the neutral zone.

Nick Seeler, Travis Sanheim, Patrick Brown, and Noah Cates came on for the final 45 seconds. The Red Wings crashed the net as the clock wound down, but Cates laid himself out on the ice to get his stick on the puck. It was just enough to put the Red Wings out of step, and the penalty kill expired without giving up a single shot on goal.

From there, the Flyers were able to slowly get back to their game. “Helped” by another penalty kill to start the third, the Flyers finally broke a scoreless stalemate over the final 11 minutes and won, 3-1.

While the Flyers ended up losing on Sunday, 5-3, they once again killed penalty after penalty, and against a much stronger power play than that of the Red Wings. The Jets’ 24.6% power-play success rate was No. 7 in the NHL going into Sunday. With their five kills, the Flyers have now killed off five or more power plays in four games this season.

The Flyers even killed a 28-second, five-on-three advantage without giving up much in terms of dangerous opportunities.

“Guys did a great job reading the [Winnipeg] players and made some blocks,” goalie Felix Sandström said. “They didn’t really get any good shots, either. So I mean, great PK. I mean, those were the things that helped us come back in this game.”

Assistant coach Brad Shaw’s goal for the unit was to get them to the point where they could roll through shorthanded minutes without pause. The unit has taken it beyond that, flipping the momentum around on opponents.

Despite the success when the kill is out there, being shorthanded requires a lot of energy. The Flyers don’t use everyone to help kill penalties, so the same guys are going out there time and time again. Sometimes, they get stuck out there, too. And, as they did against Detroit and Washington, they sometimes get stuck out there on a delayed penalty, extending the time at a disadvantage.

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With only one day of rest in between each of the next three games, the Flyers have to survive the rest of this tough stretch. They face the No. 9 power play in the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday before they hit the road to face the Minnesota Wild (No. 11 power play) Thursday and the Jets (now No. 12) again Saturday.

Through the alternating wins and losses of the last five games, the Flyers’ penalty kill has been more than reliable. If it can get through the next week, it will have time to rest over the All-Star break.