Same ol’ problems with man advantage

It’s not a question of talent, which is the frustrating aspect of the Rangers power play, so anemic early this season.

In 14 opportunities, the Rangers have converted just once with a man advantage. They had five chances in Thursday’s 30 loss to the Canadiens in Montreal — including 1:41 of a 5on3 — and came away with nothing.

“Obviously, that’s an area we haven’t been good enough [in],” Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said following practice Saturday at MSG Training Center. “We continue to work on it. I’m very confident we’ve got great personnel to have a really good power play. We’re going to see if we can get it going tomorrow.”

With that in mind, Vigneault made some changes Saturday, using defenseman Keith Yandle and Dan Boyle, along with forwards Rich Nash, Derek Stepan and Mats Zuccarello, on his first unit. Captain Ryan McDonagh was the only blueliner on the second unit, joined by J.T. Miller, Chris Kreider, Derick Brassard and Kevin Hayes. This was an issue last year, too, the Rangers finishing the regular season 21st in the league, converting on just 16.8 percent of their chances with a man advantage.

“For a power play to be effective, you need good puck movement, you need shots, you need traffic, and obviously power plays are important,” Vigneault said. “They can give teams momentum. They can keep the other team honest. We’ve been working quite a bit on ours.”

Goaltender Henrik Lundqvist will make his sixth straight start in net on Sunday against the Devils. Vigneault wouldn’t tip his hand what his plans are for Monday against the Sharks at the Garden. New backup Antti Raanta is still waiting to make his debut.

Emerson Etem and Tanner Glass were the extra forwards in practice on Saturday and Dylan McIlrath was the extra defenseman. They are the likely healthy scratches against the Devils.