New York Rangers: Fixing the anemic power play with common sense

The New York Rangers power play is 1 for its last 29 on the man advantage, how have things gotten so bad?

For much of the first half of the New York Rangers season, the power play was actually a bright spot for a bad team. The best iteration featured Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider, Kevin Hayes, Mats Zuccarello and Kevin Shattenkirk. At it’s best, the unit whipped the puck around at a frantic pace until someone had a clear look.

Now of course, Hayes is in Winnipeg and Zuccarello is on injured reserve with the Stars. Losing such skilled players would damage any power play unit, let alone one with little to work with on a second unit as reinforcements. The pair of trades forced both Pavel Buchnevich and Ryan Strome onto the top unit.

While okay individual talents, neither should really be on a team’s first power play unit. This is only part of the issue, but it’d be nice to see Filip Chytil get a crack at some time on the man advantage.

To be frank, it’s more a matter of philosophy and strategy than individual talent. Even bad power plays are able to score more frequently than the Rangers. Even the team’s head coach David Quinn realizes that his players are over thinking the situation and it’s probably in their own heads at this point.

"“It’s just too slow, too methodical. We don’t have an attack mentality on the power play, for sure. We don’t have an idea what we’re going to do with it before we get it.”"

This is what’s led to a large number of power plays in which the Rangers do not generate a single shot on goal over two whole minutes. While there is something to be said for being selective about shooting opportunities and picking one’s spot, not getting a shot at all is flat out unacceptable.

The painfully obvious

The Rangers power play is never going to be mistaken for an upper echelon group of talent, but getting back to basics is always a solid recipe. Using the team’s strengths, specifically Tony DeAngelo’s zone entries and Zibanejad’s shot as a foundation, there is something to work with at least at a baseline.

Working around those two, you have the option to park Kreider in front of the net to serve as the screen and cleanup crew for any loose pucks. The other two slots should probably go to Chytil and Buchnevich on at least a temporary basis. If the team doesn’t have enough talent to distribute between two units, overloading the top one is the best bet.

It’s the most obvious advice in the world, but instead of forcing the puck into tight windows for perfect plays, there needs to be an emphasis on getting the puck to the net. It’s the oldest cliche in the hockey, but getting pucks deep and engaging a prolonged offensive cycle is a major key to any good gameplan.

The Rangers need to get the puck to the net, plain and simple. Instead of Shattenkirk passing back and forth with Zibanejad at the top of the circles, there needs to be an urgency. It’s easy to yell “shoot,” either in person or at the T.V. but at some point, it just becomes too frustrating to watch the seconds tick away with no shot.

The power play has time to get better over the final ten games, the coach has identified the problem. It’s just a matter of adjusting and the players catching on.