It's ridiculous that I have still have to address a struggling powerplay on here - it really is. The New York Rangers have performed below their ability for the entire season while playing with the man advantage and still, midway through January, it remains unfixed and maybe slightly improved if anything. They've gotten away with-it for most of the season to this point because they've been able to match their powerplay struggles with strong penalty-killing on the other end. However, there's been more than a few times where missed opportunities with the extra skater have come back to haunt this team, and Thursday's 3-0 loss to the Senators was one of them.
The Rangers are 1-for-20 in their last eight games on the powerplay. That's a 5-percent success rate. Some may ignore that since the team has also won 10 of its last 12 games, but a 5-percent success rate to me signifies some serious problems. Those are numbers that should have the coaching staff in a scramble to get this thing fixed as soon as possible, but again, we're sitting here on January 14 continuing to talk about the club's struggles with the man advantage.
New York is 22nd in the NHL in the powerplay percentage category. To put things in perspective, the Winnipeg Jets, Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames, Carolina Hurricanes and the Islanders all have better powerplays than the Rangers. Every one of those teams is below the Rangers in the actual standings by a large margin, so there's no excuse for the Blueshirts to have a weaker powerplay than them all.
In the past I have called out the technicalities of the Rangers' powerplay, and pinpointed that as their weakness. However, the powerplay's actual function, once they gain the zone, has shown improvement. The players are moving, they are getting bodies in front of the net and shots are getting through. So no longer can I criticize the actual structure of the powerplay as being the main cause for the team's struggle there.
I think the two largest problems there are gaining the zone and just simply finishing (as pathetic as that sounds). Over the past eight games or so, the Blueshirts have had severe trouble gaining the blue-line and setting up shop in the offensive zone when on the powerplay. They are a mess coming through the neutral zone, they turn the puck over and everyone is out of position. They are not coming down ice as one swift moving unit. As Tortorella would say, they are breaking out as "individuals, not as a unit" and that's where the problem begins.
Once they have gained the zone, like I said, they've found ways to get more pucks to the net and set-up plays. Burying those pucks and finishing those plays, though, haven't been the easiest of things for this team to do. Just look, the Rangers made Mike Smith and Craig Anderson look like All-Star candidates in the past two games. Neither of those goalies was as good as they appeared to be - the Rangers made them look good.
As far as finishing a play, there's not much a coach could do there to help make improvements; that's more on the players. But with the whole breakout thing, on the other hand, that's entirely up to the coach to get straightened out. There needs to be more structure to the club's attempts to gain the zone on the powerplay, and if they can perfect that, they'll find themselves with a lot more time to make things happen.
I really hope this is the last time I need to address a struggling powerplay this season. I really do.
"It's going to bite us. You start getting this grind of the year and these months here, that's [the powerplay] going to have to help us win some games. That's a concern that we can't get some sort of consistency there." - Tortorella to Newsday
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