The Rangers’ power play is starting to pick up at the right times, but it can’t stand alone.
The Blueshirts, who have scored on the man advantage in each of their past five games, including a 4-1 loss to the Flyers at the Garden on Thursday night, have scored on seven of their past 16 power-play opportunities. This means that you have taken advantage of this.
Although the top unit is strong, the players the Rangers rely on offensively have not been able to perform 5-on-5 recently, and have not been able to perform consistently this season.
The Blueshirts’ last 5-on-5 goal came in the third period of last Sunday’s 5-2 win over the Canadiens.
“I thought one line was able to produce, they were able to stay in the offensive zone and create, but as a team as a whole, we just couldn’t produce enough,” head coach Peter Laviolette said. ” he said. “We didn’t get into difficult territory. They were fast defensively. It’s not like we were faster. They were a little heavy in the fight, but we weren’t heavy enough. Offensively. It wasn’t where we wanted it to be.”
Artemi Panarin scored the Rangers’ only goal of the night on a power play 18:19 into the first period, tying the game at one-all going into the first intermission.
Chris Kreider, who has scored a team-leading 18 goals on the power play this season, ended his man-advantage streak and scored in four consecutive games.
“two [against the Red Wings and Devils] They won a hockey game for us, so it was really big,” Laviolette said after the Canadiens game. In that game, Kreider’s third-period score on the power play was the first of a four-point surge for the Rangers.
“But again, I think there was a lot of movement on the power play. And we have Clayes in the net. He’s got to be one of the best players in that area in front of the net. Both. I think that’s where it came from. That’s where he lives, that’s where he was planted.
“His power play movement is really good, and when it comes time to get something to the net, he’s there. He knows what to do.”
Matt Lempe, along with defensemen Zach Jones and Chad Ruhwedel, were healthy scratches for the second straight game and sixth time in the past eight games.
Jones has missed four of the last five games, while Ruwedel hasn’t played since a five-game stretch from March 19-28.
Adam Fox was chosen as the winner of the team’s Rod Gilbert “Mr. Gilbert”. The “Ranger” award is given to the player who “most honors Rod’s legacy by exemplifying leadership qualities both on and off the ice and by making significant humanitarian contributions to his community.” .
Despite some injury concerns in this week’s game against the Islanders, Laviolette still has no plans to rest his regular skaters through the remaining two games of the regular season.
“At this point, that’s not the case,” he said. “Right now we’re dialing in. We’re trying to collect two points.”
On Thursday, Filip Szitil had his red non-contact jersey hanging in his locker at the MSG Training Center along with the rest of his practice gear, until the Czech center suffered a setback and was ruled out for the rest of the season in late January. This has happened ever since.
There isn’t much up-to-date information, but Sitil has missed most of the season with a suspected concussion and is not expected to return for the playoffs.
The Rangers are scheduled to practice Friday before playing their final regular season game against the Islanders on Saturday afternoon.
