Patrick Eaves-1-28-14

Red Wings forward Patrick Eaves is knocked off his skates by the Flyers' Mark Streit.

(The Associated Press)

PHILADELPHIA – The blueprint for a successful power play hasn’t changed during Daniel Alfredsson’s 18 NHL seasons.

“For any successful power play, as long as I’ve been in the league, you always come back to the same thing -- shoot the puck and get people in front,” Alfredsson said. “We got to find a way to get some more pucks to the net and give this team some momentum.”

The power play provided no momentum for the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday; instead, it seemed to drain the life out of them. The Red Wings went 0-for-4 and registered only three shots in eight minutes with the extra man in a 5-0 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers at the Wells Fargo Center.

The Red Wings had plenty of issues on this night. Converting once or twice on the power play might not have made a difference in the outcome. But it would have at least boosted their confidence in an area in which they have struggled this month, going 4-for-50 (eight percent) in 12 games.

“We have to find a way,” Niklas Kronwall said. “We just have to get more pucks to the net; it’s as simple as that. We got to forget about all the ‘Go here, go there, whatever,’ get some more pucks to the net.

“I know we’ve been talking about it. I said it before, enough talking, we got to go out there and actually do it on the ice.”

Kronwall said it doesn’t matter that key pieces are missing due to injuries (Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, Johan Franzen).

“It gives other people and opportunity and we haven’t been taking advantage of that opportunity,” Kronwall said.

Their power play late in the first period best illustrated their problem. They had a four-on-three advantage for 1:16. They had a lot of open ice and controlled the puck in the offensive zone during most of the man-advantage. But it was wasted because they continually passed it around seeking a perfect shot.

“When you never look at the net, when you just stick-handle and pass it around on the outside, not much is going on,” coach Mike Babcock said. “When that’s your skill set pretty soon you’re not on the power play.”

Said Alfredsson: “At times we did a bad job of setting up; that’s been an issue a couple of times the last few games.”

The Red Wings’ power play ranked among the NHL’s top 10 in late December. One month later, it’s 22nd (16.2 percent).

“Especially on the road, special teams becomes more important,” Alfredsson said. “I think it’s tough five-on-five because the other team has the matchup advantage (last change).”

Babcock said they need to focus on the power play in practice this week and get “dialed in.”

Injuries have forced them to use some young players (Riley Sheahan, Tomas Jurco, Joakim Andersson) who ordinarily wouldn’t be on the power play at this point in their NHL career. That doesn’t excuse them from not executing properly.

“I don’t care where they’re from or where they played before or how many minutes, you can do things right; it doesn’t matter if you’re a kid or not,” Babcock said.