Flyers' power-play units: Who's No. 1? | Sam Carchidi

Much has been made about the Flyers' ineffective five-on-five play last season. Rightfully so. It played a major role in their failure to reach the playoffs.

It also is one of the reasons Claude Giroux is now playing left wing and not centering the top line. Putting Sean Couturier between Giroux and Jake Voracek should make that line much more defensively responsible. Voracek (minus-24) and Giroux (minus-15) were a combined minus-39 a year ago.

So while that move and the development of a speedy fourth line should bolster five-on-five play this season, there is another area that needs improvement if this team is going to play beyond 82 games.

Say hello to the power play and its new coach, Kris Knoblauch.

The power play's decline cost Joe Mullen his job last season, clicking at a measly 12.1 percent in March (8 for 66) as the Flyers dropped out of the playoff race.

Under Knoblauch, there are positive signs. The Flyers were 5 for 20 (25 percent) in the first four games, and the improved play of the second unit was eye-opening.

In fact, if you include the preseason games, the second unit — Nolan Patrick, Jordan Weal, Sean Couturier, Travis Konecny, and Ivan Provorov — has moved the puck better than the first one.

"Right from Day 1, they've really been excited to work at their game as a group of five," coach Dave Hakstol said of the young, new-look second unit. "They've spent extra time before and after practice and they've done a very good job of preparing. They're doing a lot of really good things on a nightly basis."

Hakstol said his team has "good, healthy competition between those two groups, and that's a positive."

Another plus: The power play looks less predictable than last season. The Flyers are going behind the goal line much more frequently, especially with the second unit, and looking to pass out front. That's a PP setup that was rarely used last year.

"We have a couple different looks, and I think to have two power plays that don't have the same setup is good," said Giroux, one of the staples on the first unit. "It makes it harder for [teams'] penalty kill to pre-scout us."

Maybe Knoblauch looked at video from last season and decided to shake things up. Or maybe it's just part of the scheme he incorporated into his power play when he coached Erie in the Ontario Hockey League.

General manager Ron Hextall does not allow the media to talk to the assistant coaches — he wants one voice, Hakstol's — so Knoblauch's views aren't known.

Knoblauch did break his silence to GoErie.com recently and talked about the NHL's being "pretty much all hockey. In junior hockey, there's so much as a coach you have to handle…and you have a lot more practice time. Training camp is so much shorter [in the NHL], you play more games, way fewer practices. For the coaching staff, you have to be much more prepared."

One of Knoblauch's biggest challenges is getting pass-happy Val Filppula to shoot more often.

Filppula has replaced Brayden Schenn on the first power-play unit and has big skates to fill. Schenn, traded to St Louis in June, tied for the NHL lead with 17 power-play goals last season.

Filppula is getting more comfortable in his role as a sniper instead of a feeder. He scored two power-play goals in Tuesday's 6-5 loss in Nashville.

"It took a little while for the chemistry to grow there," Hakstol said of the top unit. "Even though a lot of times things looked really good at times in preseason, and now you're starting to see that chemistry really coming together."

Filppula, who sometimes seemed reluctant to shoot in training camp, said he needs to continue firing away from his spot down low.

"Obviously, when you get the puck there, 10, 15 feet away, you're so close and it's a great opportunity to shoot," he said. "You have to think shoot first, and then hopefully something else opens up with that, and I try to support the others" on the unit — Giroux, Voracek, Wayne Simmonds, and Shayne Gostisbehere. "I haven't played that middle spot a whole lot; it's different. I like it so far."

While the power play has looked sharp, the penalty-killing unit struggled in the first four games. Getting those two specialty units in sync will determine if this team is going to take a step forward in the deep Metropolitan Division.