Bad news for members of the Rangers’ vaunted power play unit. They’re going to face a high-end, offensive penalty kill that includes a Selke Trophy candidate at forward and a deep, physical defense.
The good news is it’s not something we’ve never seen before.
And it’s not something they haven’t succeeded in in the past.
In fact, according to Peter Laviolette, the adjustment from seeing Carolina’s penalty kill in the second round to seeing Florida’s penalty kill in the third round wasn’t much of an adjustment at all.
And the Panthers, who finished the regular season in sixth place in penalty shootouts, would have looked an even scarier team had the Rangers not finished the series against the league’s best 4-on-5 unit.
“There’s a big difference between some teams. I don’t think there’s that much difference between these two teams,” Laviolette said after the Rangers finished practice Monday. “This is another offensive-minded team. When you mention Carolina and Florida, I think they’re different teams. The way they defend, the way they defend on the penalty kill, they have an offensive mindset. Therefore, things need to be done in a certain way.
“Some teams defend by hunkering down and defending the seam and blocking shots. It’s a different message and a different mindset that goes into our power play and how we create.”
The Hurricanes eventually realized they would have more success against the Rangers by dropping back more than normal, not completely but certainly not completely, rather than using their usual modus operandi of attacking the puck and darting into the passing lane.
The Rangers dominated on the power play early in the series, but it took until the third period of Game 6 for Carolina to make adjustments and break through again.
“It tried to slow down the game and we don’t particularly want that, but we got some top three players with good skills.” [Adam Fox]Micah [Zibanejad] and [Artemi Panarin]” Vincent Trocheck said after the Game 6 victory. “If we can get the puck in their hands and they can slow the game down, things will go well.”
Against Florida’s similar scheme in the regular season, the Rangers went 3-for-9 on the power play.
The Blueshirts will also be encouraged by the fact that the Panthers have committed more penalties this year than any other team outside of Anaheim.
“They’re up on the ice and they’re working aggressively,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “That was the best part of our penalty kill in the Tampa series.” [in the first round]we didn’t go to the box, so you have to stay away from there.”
