Rangers shake up ‘stagnant’ power play after dismal stretch of futility
Peter Laviolette has seen enough of the New York Rangers impotent power play. So, the coach is making personnel changes ahead of their game Saturday against the Vancouver Canucks at Madison Square Garden.
Mired in a massive power outage with the man advantage, the Rangers practiced with two new power-play units on Friday. Defenseman Adam Fox was joined on the top unit by forwards Artemi Panarin, Vincent Trocheck, Alexis Lafreniere and Chris Kreider. PP2 featured defenseman Zac Jones and forwards J.T. Miller, Mika Zibanejad, Will Cuylle and Jonny Brodzinski.
“A little life in the group. Everyone’s excited to see some new faces, and sometimes that works. So, we’ll see,” Miller said following practice.
Since arriving in a trade with the Canucks on Jan. 31, Miller’s been a staple on PP1. Zibanejad has been on the top power-play unit for years and is tied for fourth in Rangers history with Hall of Famer Brian Leetch with 106 power-play goals.
Miller has two goals and six points on the power play in 20 games with the Rangers. Zibanejad, who scored 20 power-play goals two seasons ago, has just five this season, though his 17 power-play points are second on the Rangers behind Artemi Panarin (22).
Moving them to the second unit, spreads the wealth of talent for the Rangers. They’ve long loaded up PP1 and given that unit the vast majority of opportunity and TOI. These moves will balance things more and give a better opportunity to players like Lafreniere and Cuylle, in particular.
“Right now we’re too stagnant and stopping the flow of the game rather than creating momentum for the team,” Miller explained. “It happens. It’s unfortunate that it’s right now.”
The Rangers are 1-for-24 in their past 10 games on the power play and 2-for- 33 since Feb. 25. Third in the NHL last season (26.4 percent) with the same group of players, excluding Miller, the Rangers have floundered on the power play this season. They’re 25th in the League at 18.4 percent.
“We need to score. It’s not even scoring, we just need momentum for the team,” Miller said.
Laviolette’s been loathe to deviate too much from the tried and true when it comes to the power play. But Friday, he said it was more than time to shake things up.
“If something’s not working, not getting results, at some point you have to look at something different,” Laviolette said Friday. “I think you need to be patient at times when you put something together to see how it does … but if there’s been extended time not getting the results we want to get, you’ve got to look at something different.”
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Rangers notebook: Igor Shesterkin scare; Matt Rempe back
The Rangers had a brief scare at practice Friday when Igor Shesterkin appeared to be injured, or at least momentarily stung, by a Jonny Brodzinski shot.
Shesterkin took the hard one-timer in his midsection or perhaps a bit lower and was doubled up in pain. He skated slowly out of his crease and even smacked his stick against the glass before heading back to the paint and finishing practice.
Matt Rempe was back on the fourth line after missing the 4-3 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday because of an illness. Rempe skated on right wing with Juuso Parssinen at center and Brennan Othmann on left wing.
It’d appear that Brett Berard will be a healthy scratch against the Canucks on Saturday. The third line had Sam Carrick in the middle, flanked by Kreider and Brodzinski.
The defense pairs were made up of the six d-men who played Thursday. K’Andre Miller was paired with Will Borgen, Adam Fox was with Carson Soucy, and Zac Jones remained with Braden Schneider.
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