Power failures: Hershey postgame

It’s actually not an overly long time to be without a power-play goal. I mean, yeah, after tonight’s 0-for-3, it’s eight full games without one, part of the reason Hershey whitewashed them 5-0 (Dan Ellis, an endless stream of early odd-man rushes and a bakery full of turnovers are the other biggest).

But their 0-for-26 includes only 16 full minors, partly because of overlaps and interruptions. There’s one 52-second advantage, one 45-second, a couple of 21s. In all, they’ve been up for 43:58 without a goal. The franchise’s sixth-longest streak, for example, 0-for-28 early in 2009-10? That included over 55 minutes of PP time, partly because of a fruitless major. The fourth-longest, an 0-for-30, ended at an even 59 minutes (with an overtime power-play goal).

So see? It could be worse.

I know, no consolation, sitting at 14-for-141. I figured I’d talk a bit more about it during the week, but Brent Thompson got worked up about it, so here’s some of what he had to say:

“There’s no consistent effort,” Thompson said. “For me, our power play, we don’t give that second effort. … We don’t execute a pass. That’s why they’re on the power play, because they’re supposed to be the offensively skilled players.”

“(The Bears) shoot; they retrieve it,” Thompson added. “We don’t shoot. They retrieve it. The bottom line, we’ve got to get in the goalie’s eyes. We’ve got to get to the hard areas. We’ve got to shoot the puck.”

…….

They had some good chances at even strength, but Ellis made some big saves. The Bears looked very good at times, pinned Bridgeport for a while, made it a shooting gallery. There was one shift early in the second where, though they didn’t put a lot of shots on Stephon Williams, they didn’t let Bridgeport cross the red line. Though everyone else got off one at a time along the way, lucky Kevin Czuczman, the left defenseman with the long change, was on for about exactly three minutes.

“On their part, they’re active. Their defensemen are active,” Czuczman said. “They’re a smart team. They manage the puck well. That’s why they’re one of the top teams.”

Tried to preface a question with the fact that Bridgeport was playing three-in-three while Hershey had Friday off, but mixed up my pronouns or something and said Hershey was playing three-in-three, ticking Thompson off further. Oops. Anyway. “Your second game, you’re always sharper, or you should be,” Thompson said. “But (the schedule is) an excuse. We don’t want to be a team that wants to use that excuse.”

Good night for Adam Pelech up top, says Arthur Staple.

Prescout. This Khokhlachev seems OK. The Bruins also seem capable of scoring on the power play. (Leads the league, 24.1 percent.)

Team’s off tomorrow. More Tuesday.

Michael Fornabaio