In searching for answers to the drop-off, an obvious place to start is the loss of influential Kris Versteeg to hip surgery.
"We've obviously been thrown off a little bit by Versteeg's injury,'' acknowledged Gulutzan, "but that's no excuse. Two or three games with that, but now we've got to find a new chemistry with guys and that's what we worked on today, extensively.
"Getting the same kind of looks we were getting before."
Gulutzan's frustration with the powerplay was apparent in the wake of Thursday's 3-2 loss to the San Jose Sharks, another 0-fer (0-3) night that included a brief two-man advantage fizzle.
"I thought the powerplays in the second took some momentum out of our sails,'' he critiqued post-game. "Couldn't win a drew on the (38-second ) 5-on-3. And the other full powerplay I don't think we even got in (the offensive zone).
"So it took a little zip out of us. I thought they got some juice on those kills."
The personnel is certainly in place to do big things PP-wise, when you can fire Gaudreau, Sean Monahan, Giordano, Dougie Hamilton, TJ Brodie, Matthew Tkachuk, et all, over the boards.
This is largely the same group that jumped from 22nd in 2015-16 at 17% to 10th and 20.23% last season. Right now, the month-long swoon has seen them drop to 18th at 18.3%.
So does a correction come down to player application? Tweaking what already exists? Fresh blood? What?
"If you look at our units,'' said Gulutzan, "one of them hasn't really changed a lot, in the Backlund unit. We're talking about two powerplay units that were in the top 10 in the National Hockey League last year.
"Nothing much has changed powerplay or penalty-kill wise.
"So we just gotta kinda get executing a little better.
"The first group we use, Johnny's group, were cooking at 20 percent but the last few games here, with the injury, we have to find new chemistry."
