New York Rangers’ Power Play Must Break Through

By Dominic Lancella on October 21, 2014

During last season’s playoffs, the New York Rangers’ power play was non-existent, as it was for long stretches of the 2013-14 regular season. Following New York’s defeat in the Stanley Cup Final, the power play became one of the top areas for improvement before the start of this season. Unfortunately for the Rangers, they’ve come out of the gate picking up right where they left off with absolutely no production on the man advantage.

The Rangers are one of just two teams in the Eastern Conference without a single power play goal this season. There are 21 NHL teams that already have three or more power play goals, and the Rangers are still looking to break through once. In six games, New York is 0-for-17 with a man advantage and needs to find a way to turn it around fast.

Not only has New York’s power play been non-productive, it hasn’t even been threatening. It’s one thing to put pressure on the opposition and come up empty on the power play, but the Rangers have been going quietly during most of their power play opportunities. The Rangers have averaged 1.35 shots on goal per power play, a less than stellar average to say the least.

Everyone thought the power play would get a huge boost when the Rangers signed offensive defenseman Dan Boyle in the offseason, but Boyle broke his hand in the season-opener and will likely miss about another month. Despite the injury to Boyle, that is certainly no excuse for the team not scoring a power play goal to this point. New York needs to execute the simple things way better, something they haven’t done at all so far.

For starters, the Rangers need to do better at controlling offensive zone faceoffs on the power play. Too many times they lose the first faceoff following the penalty and then they have trouble entering the zone once the puck is cleared. The next thing they need to improve is their decisiveness with the puck. The Rangers need to be passing it quicker and find the open man, which seems simple enough, but the Rangers have had obvious trouble. Next, they need to follow up simple passing with simple shooting. That means getting the puck to the net when given the chance. It might take a rebound garbage goal to break through on the power play, and that starts with getting the puck on net with traffic in front.

Lastly, if not anything else, somebody needs to step up and make a play. A team can execute a power play game plan, but somebody still needs to finish the play. It doesn’t matter who they get it from, but the Rangers need to break through on the power play now. New York is one of the better teams in the league when it comes to playing five-on-five hockey, but their power play is horrendous.

The Rangers receive as good an opportunity to break through as any tonight when they face the New Jersey Devils. The Devils have given up the third-most power plays in the league so far and are shorthanded about three times per game on average. New Jersey has also given up six power play goals in their first five games, including at least one power play goal in four of those five games.

So it seems that one way or another, something’s got to give between New York’s sloppy power play and New Jersey’s penalty kill woes. One thing is for sure: If the Rangers don’t convert a power play goal in the next two or three games, it’s going to raise a ton of concern in the Big Apple.