VOORHEES, N.J. -- If there’s reason to believe the Flyers are improving despite back-to-back overtime losses, it can be found in their penalty kill.
Slowly, it has gotten better.
The Flyers' PK units killed off four San Jose power plays — one of which ran into overtime — during Thursday’s 1-0 loss to the Sharks.
“Yeah I think since the start of the year, honestly, the penalty kill has been costing us a few points here and there throughout the games,” Sean Couturier said after the game.
“I think we at least got one point, I think it was a big part of our success.”
The Sharks could have easily wrapped things up in regulation had they scored on any of those power plays.
Prior to Thursday, the Flyers had given up at least one power-play goal in four straight games.
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Their season-high for PK futility occurred at the end of October through early November, when the Flyers gave up seven PP goals in seven games, dropping them to 28th overall in the NHL.
Right now the Flyers are ranked 24th.
What the Flyers did well against San Jose was make things difficult for the Sharks in the neutral zone. The Sharks really didn’t have quality setups on three of their power plays.
“We had a little up ice pressure,” head coach Dave Hakstol said. “Even down low in the zone to break up the rhythm of their breakout. That can be a big part of it.
"With some teams, it’s easier to do that than against others, depending on personnel. I thought we did a pretty good job in all phases.”
The minutes were also evenly distributed on the kill. As usual, Chris VandeVelde and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare were paired together. They've been the Flyers' best pair since last season.
VandeVelde logged 2:35 and Bellemare 3:20 on the PK against San Jose.
“We had a good night and there’s been a lot of games we lost because of the PK,” Bellemare said. “It was nice we got a point because of it.
“If you get a good pressure before our own blue line, you are going to make them frustrated and that is pretty much the point of the PK. Makes these guys a little frustrated. We did a good job of that.”
The Flyers missed Bellemare’s presence on the PK during the eight games he missed from late October through Nov. 12 when the Flyers were giving up power-play goals.
You take one player out of the equation and it disrupts the entire unit.
“Belly and Vandy are two guys that read off each other very well,” Hakstol said. “Up ice, they are able to get some up pressure.
“That’s a real feel. A chemistry issue and those two guys have killed quite a bit together. They get up ice together and they can do it in a way it’s not high-risk.”
They’ll need to be good Saturday night in Ottawa. The Senators have the seventh-best power play in the NHL (21.7 percent) which has helped them climb ahead of Tampa Bay into second place in the Atlantic Division.
Nick Schultz, who logged 3:27 ice time on the kill, said the key against Ottawa will again be to attack their power play in the neutral zone.
“It’s starts with the neutral zone when they get the puck and break out, and then come into our zone,” Schultz said. “It’s a key to have pressure right away.
“If we do a good job there, the forward get moving and can move the puck to one side and we can get our neutral zone [trap] in effect and get pressure on them when they get into our zone. You want to disrupt their setup before they can make plays.”