By Tarik El-Bashir
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, January 6, 2007

The Washington Capitals open the second half of the season tonight against the Atlanta Thrashers seeking more production from their power-play and penalty-kill units.

Over the past six games (1-5-0), the power play has converted only 4 of 36 opportunities for a mere 11 percent effectiveness rate. For the season, it ranks 19th in the league at 16.7 percent, which is below the league average of 17.4 percent and Coach Glen Hanlon's goal of 20 percent.

The unit's trouble hasn't been entering the zone or setting up, it's been finishing around the net, according to Hanlon.

"A good example is the five-on-three against Phoenix" on New Year's Day, Hanlon said yesterday at Kettler Capitals Iceplex. "Everything was working properly. The puck gets to the right guy at the right spot and we just didn't score."

Center Dainius Zubrus singled out two areas for improvement: establishing a shot from the point and putting pucks on the net rather than pressing for the pretty play.

"If our point shot is a threat, that forces the other teams to come out to challenge it, and that opens things up down low," Zubrus said. "The other thing is we need to shoot when we have a chance. Sometimes our mentality is to make the perfect play and score into an empty net. Power-play goals are about rebounds or bounces."

The penalty kill hasn't been much better. It has yielded seven goals on 29 opportunities the past six games for an effectiveness rate of about 75 percent. For the season, the club ranks 20th in the league at 80.8 percent. Hanlon called the unit's performance "unacceptable" and traces its decline to John Erskine's injury.

"He's a great penalty killer," Hanlon said of the defenseman, who suffered a broken foot while blocking a shot on Dec. 16. "He's strong in front. He's good on clears. Nobody wants to go near him."

Leading scorer Alex Ovechkin missed his second practice this week with a nagging lower body injury. Hanlon would not be more specific about Ovechkin's ailment, but the star winger is not expected to miss any playing time.

Matt Pettinger also skipped practice with a minor injury. The winger was clobbered by Montreal defenseman Francis Bouillon in the second period Thursday and was "a little bit sore all over," according to Hanlon.

Hanlon benched forward Jakub Klepis for all but 2 1/2 minutes against Montreal after Klepis took a hooking penalty in the first period. Canadiens defenseman Craig Rivet scored on the ensuing power play.

"That's a repeat offense," Hanlon said. "There's a reason he does it. And hopefully this sends a message not to do it again. It was disheartening because we had five losses, we were playing our hearts out and we had total control of the game. Then we had that penalty. That very easily could have cost us the game. Thank God it didn't."