Strome Believes More Defensive Awareness Among Keys To Helping Capitals Turn Around Power Play

Going into next season, the Washington Capitals are preparing to do what they can to turn the power play around. The front office is taking steps to address the man advantage, having hired Ray Bennett to replace Kirk Muller while preparing to try and add assets in the offseason. Bennett The Perfect Fit For A Capitals Team In Desperate Need Of A Power Play Renaissance The Capitals added Ray Bennett to their coaching staff on Thursday.

From the players' standpoint, there are things they can do on their end to improve as well, and for Dylan Strome, one main solution is to improve defensively when on the man advantage. When reflecting on the season, Strome noted the Capitals' struggles on the power play, which ranked as the eighth-worst in the league at 17. 8 perrcent.

He also pointed out how the team not only failed to find consistency and generate chances, but how it also gave up 11 shorthanded goals over the course of the season, tied for the second-most in the league. "I think about some of those games where we gave up shorthanded goals and those are a momentum killer," Strome said. "That's just one of those things that's so easy to clean up that just can't happen anymore.

You take away 11 of those goals, and maybe you have two more wins, and two more wins gets us in the playoffs. " Going forward, Strome said that he wants to not only improve his overall play on the power play. That means hustling more on the backcheck and defending better, an area Strome said he and his team needs to "take more pride in" going into next year.