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Bylsma: ‘I feel real comfortable about our power play’

crosbybehindbylsma

James

Despite the fact Pittsburgh is scoreless on the power play in the Eastern Conference finals, Dan Bylsma isn’t showing concern.

On Friday, the Pens’ head coach was asked about his team’s inability to convert with the man advantage (0-for-12 thus far).

He said he’d relish the opportunity for similar chances in Game 4 -- because he’s confident his team will convert.

“I’d love to put our players and our power play and have the puck on James Neal’s stick in the slot, three times with the puck on his stick like he was last game,” Bylsma explained. “Malkin on a breakaway. More than two other opportunities. We’d like to see those opportunities again for our guys tonight.”

The Penguins have been unable to convert scoring chances into goals all series long, but Game 3 was the most glaring example of that struggle -- Pittsburgh out-shot Boston 54-40 on the night (13-4 on the PP) and had six man advantage opportunities to the Bruins’ two.

The most stunning part might be how quickly Pittsburgh’s power play went from scorching hot to stone cold.

The Pens went 7-for-21 in the opening round against the Islanders (33. 3 percent) and 6-for-25 against the Sens in Round 2 (24 percent), scoring at least one PPG in nine of 11 games.

Their current three-game scoreless streak on the power play matches a season-high, and they never went four games without scoring on the power play.

So maybe Bylsma is right in feeling confident that, eventually, the PP will come around.

“I feel real comfortable about our power play and our guys cashing in on those,” he said. “Is that something we’re going to build on? Absolutely.”