New York Rangers: Getting the sluggish power play going

Through the first four games of the 2018-2019 NHL season, the New York Rangers have only scored on one out of twelve power plays.

The entirety of this season is going to be about figuring things out. The New York Rangers’ power play is no different from anything else on the docket. The unit which operated at a 25 percent conversion rate for a time last season looks outright lost thus far. While some of this can be chalked up to scheme change, there are other factors at play.

First, the team’s bad habits from year’s past are still seeping into how the team operates now. The inclination to always search for the perfect play has resulted in many a hair pulling moment. For whatever reason, the Rangers’ best playmakers always pass up good scoring chances in hopes of creating the perfect one.

Well, sometimes, a good scoring chance is all the team needs. Through the four games, the offense at even strength has struggled to convert. While the team does not have an expectation to win this season, it’s going to be painfully long if they continue to average just 2.40 goals per game. That figure is the ninth worst in the entire league and the power play is not helping.

This is a unit that features highly skilled players like Kevin Shattenkirk, Chris Kreider, Pavel Buchnevich, Mika Zibanejad and Mats Zuccarello. As a collective, those five players are about as good as any Rangers’ power play in the past ten years in terms of raw talent.

Scheme

Most power play units have a designated trigger man or shooter for open looks. While they are not the only player that can shoot, they are who the team wants to be getting the highest quality shot on the man advantage. For the Rangers, they use Zibanejad from the bottom of the left circle because of his wicked release.

However, the other player’s on the unit have a bad habit of forcing the puck to Zibanejad so he can rip a shot. Instead of sometimes just throwing the puck at the net and having Kreider use his large frame in front to clean up rebounds or deflect incomings shots.

The Rangers need to get back to basics on the power play in hopes of just getting more pucks on net. In the game against the Edmonton Oilers, the unit had two tries and managed to create a total of just four shots over those four minutes. While Edmonton does feature Conor McDavid on its penalty kill, a truly disruptive force, there was just a lack of creativity.

The default should not get the puck to Zibanejad and let him shoot. As good a player as the Swede is, he is not Alex Ovechkin.

Personnel

Of course, it’s early on in the season and the players are still trying to get things to gel. In addition, some of the team’s players have just gotten off to a slow start. Aside from the game against the Carolina Hurricanes, Kreider has been outright non-existent. For the power play to be effective, it needs Kreider in front being a menace to the goaltender.

The team also needs Buchnevich and Shattenkirk to figure out what’s wrong with them. Down the stretch against the Oilers, the Russian was benched for basically the final eight minutes of the game for being ineffective. As for Shattenkirk, the defenseman still doesn’t look 100 percent right and feels a step slow.

This all amounts to a unit that features talented players all in a funk at the same time. While they will eventually get it together regardless, there are a few easy fixes that can be implemented right away.

First, simplify things, get the puck to the net and play dirty area hockey. The other team is not going to make it easy, but the closer a player is to the net, the higher the danger the shot can be. Second, experiment with other personnel, both Brett Howden and Filip Chytil have played on the second unit, consider them for the first.

The NHL season is a lot longer than two weeks, the team will eventually find a groove on the man advantage. It’s just up to the coaching staff to implement adjustments to improve success.