The Rangers have scored just two power-play goals in their past 31 man-advantage opportunities, with the last one coming at the beginning of this month.
But according to head coach David Quinn, the six unsuccessful chances on the power play in Friday’s 1-0 loss to the Bruins at the Garden not only contributed to the team’s lack of offense, but “deflated” and “sucked the life out of” his Rangers.
“We’re passing when we should shoot, we shoot when we should pass and we just make bad decisions and we’re slow,” Quinn said. “We’re not going to go anywhere with a power play clicking the way it is and looking the way it is and our guys know that.
“The good news is, we’ve got all the guys back from last year, for the most part, that were one of the top power plays in the league. We just got to be better and they all know it. I think they’re demoralized, I think they’ve lost a little bit of the swagger on the power play. Power plays can be streaky and ours is at an all-time low streak.”
Entering Friday’s matchup, the Rangers ranked eighth in the league in power-play opportunities per game (3.82) while their six man-advantage goals are good for 24th in the NHL.
Quinn opted to deploy the second power-play unit of Jacob Trouba, K’Andre Miller, Kaapo Kakko, Brendan Lemieux and Ryan Strome for the opening minutes of the Rangers’ first two man-advantage opportunities.
When Charlie Coyle was called for slashing at 1:58 of the second, Strome replaced Lafreniere on the first power-play unit. Adam Fox and Chris Kreider led the team with the most time on the power play, with Mika Zibanejad and Pavel Buchnevich not too far behind.
“I think the fact that our power play is struggling the way it is, I think it can carry over to a certain degree five-on-five,” Quinn said. “We’re certainly not generating the offense we need to and it’s something we got to keep working on.”
Bruins winger Nick Ritchie registered the lone goal of the game when he stuffed the puck past Igor Shesterkin at 9:27 of the second period.
“I let the puck in, I had to get a little tighter to the post,” the rookie netminder said through a translator following the loss. “I’m going to work on this component in practice. It’s disappointing that this was the goal that made the difference in the game.”
Shesterkin, whose record dropped to 3-4-1, grew noticeably heated after Ritchie appeared to elbow him in the head following a whistle later in the game. Asked if his own emotions helped him stay focused or made it more difficult, Shesterkin pointed to the team’s aggressiveness as a whole.
“We played aggressive and stood up for each other as teammates,” he said. “We tried to continue playing hockey despite all the aggressiveness in the game.”
The 25-year-old finished the night with 29 saves.
The Blueshirts have killed off 21 consecutive power-play opportunities by their opponents for the first time since a stretch from Dec. 8 to Dec. 18 in 2016.
Going 4-for-4 on the penalty kill in the loss, the Rangers held Boston to just six shots on goal while on the man-advantage.
In the last six games, the Rangers have not allowed a man-advantage goal, with the PK units going a perfect 21-for-21. They have killed off 24 of their opponents’ 25 power-play opportunities over the past seven games for a 96 percent kill percentage.
Associate general manager Chris Drury was named the general manager of the 2021 U.S. Men’s National Team, USA Hockey announced Friday.
Drury, who was recently promoted by the Rangers, served in the same capacity for the 2019 U.S. Men’s National Team and was also named to be the general manager of the 2020 team before the IIHF canceled the 2020 Men’s World Championship.