POWER IMBALANCE
Rangers relying too much on specialty units
Regarding the Rangers, who entertain Connor Bedard at the Garden on Thursday, or is Bedard going to entertain the Garden?
1. In a sense, Tuesday’s 6-1 rout by Carolina was an aberration as it marked only the fifth time — and first time since Nov. 29 — that the Blueshirts were outscored on special teams.
The Rangers could not figure out the Hurricanes’ penalty kill that also destroyed the Maple Leafs on Saturday. They could not get through the blue-line blockade, even on tries where they made multiple drop passes in the neutral zone. They became frustrated. They couldn’t — more so, wouldn’t — get the puck in deep. They became even more frustrated.
And the frustration of the guys on the elite PP1 unit bled into fiveon-five that unraveled in the third period as soon as Carolina scored 11 seconds after the Rangers did nothing with their third power play and scored again 1:23 after that.
“There’s no question about that,” head coach Peter Laviolette said Wednesday on a day of meetings and video work when asked about the frustration factor. “Specialty teams can give you energy and I think they can also work back the other way as well.”
Laviolette appropriately noted that the Blueshirts’ spe- cial teams have been high-end all season. But the Rangers are too dependent on their power play and they are too dependent on the four PP1 forwards — Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider and Vincent Trocheck — to take care of the scoring business.
It’s a high-wire act for which there just isn’t enough of a safety net below.
2. This is the exact time to remind everyone that the Rangers have been operating without two top-six/top-nine forwards in Filip Chytil and Kaapo Kakko, the former since Nov. 2, the latter since Nov. 29. The Rangers have done well to camouflage their absences, but the team just does not get enough supplementary scoring from the bottom-six.
Laviolette has used the Jimmy Vesey-Barclay Goodrow-Tyler Pitlick unit as his checking line, though he opted to go power against power against Carolina. That has left the Will Cuylle-Nick Bonino-Jonny Brodzinski combination as the third line. The Rangers have been constructed to have three scoring lines.
No one is blaming anyone for this, but in 12 games operating as a unit while deployed as the third line, Cuylle-Bonino-Brodzinski has scored two goals.
This alignment will change in the wake of Pitlick’s lower-body injury that he sustained against Carolina that will sideline him for an indefinite period and created the need for Brennan Othmann’s recall from the AHL Wolf Pack. It remains to be seen how Laviolette will rearrange the furniture.
But if a remade bottom-six is unable to get the job done, the hierarchy might want to promote Adam Edstrom from Hartford and give him a test drive centering the third line between Cuylle and Othmann.
I’ve even got a name for the unit. Kid Line.
3. Adam Fox doesn’t quite look like himself, does he? It’s like the perennial Norris contender has been a half-beat behind much of the time since returning Nov. 29 from a 10-game absence. His decision-making has seemed less crisp.
Tuesday, Fox seemed particularly frustrated. For good reason. It was one of the least effective nights of his career.
The Fox-Ryan Lindgren pair was caved, on for two goals against and none for with an xGF of 21.5 percent. The tandem was on for six scoring chances against and none for. In the last two games that includes Saturday’s 5-1 victory in Tampa, Fox-Lindgren was on for 16 scoring chances against and two for in 29:07.
By contrast, the K’Andre MillerJacob Trouba pair was on for 19 chances for and 11 against while the Erik Gustafsson-Braden Schneider pair, which struggled big time against the ’Canes, was on for nine chances for and 11 against.
4. The resiliency and ability to self-correct is impressive, but there shouldn’t be this whiplash effect through the schedule. The Rangers need to establish a consistent baseline in which structure can overcome games when the special teams struggle.
Fact is after a 16-2-1 run, the Rangers are 7-6 in their last 13 games in which they have scored 42 goals while allowing a way-too-many 41.
5. In the seven games the Blueshirts have lost by three-ormore goals, they have been outscored by an aggregate 15-2 in the third period, but with six scored into an empty net.
The Rangers’ 10 regulation defeats include five losses by four goals or more. In that respect, Tuesday was not an aberration.
“I don’t know if you’re almost halfway through the season and you have five games that have ended 5-1 [against], I don’t know if that’s abnormal or not,” Laviolette said. “I’m not sure.”
At random, let’s take the Rangers from two years ago, who were 23-9-4 through 36 games, one point off this year’s 25-10-1 pace.
By that point, Gerard Gallant’s first year on Broadway had included two 5-1 defeats, one by 7-3 and one by 6-0.
Perhaps not so abnormal, after all.