The Rangers’ power play is currently operating at roughly a 33 percent success rate, having scored on five of 15 man-advantage stretches through the first four games of the season.
Three of those power-play tallies came Monday night in a 6-4 win over the Ducks, in which they had four man-advantage opportunities. And even on the one when they didn’t capitalize, the Rangers scored almost immediately after it expired, when Filip Chytil fed Alexis Lafreniere for his first goal of the season and the 4-2 lead at 17:39 of the second period.
“We win a lot of pucks back,” said Mika Zibanejad, who scored twice on the power play in the win. “And then that’s usually when things open up on the power play. I think we have a pretty good group, two groups, to make those plays when they’re there. Just working for each other. I think that’s been a big key for us.”
The top unit seemingly grows more and more automatic with every passing rep together. They often spend nearly the entire stretch with the man advantage in the offensive zone, cycling the puck among one another and looking to create lanes to the net. It has a calm flow to it that seems to be unsettling for opponents.
The Rangers now have power-play goals in three of their first four games. The only game in which they didn’t capitalize on the man advantage was in Winnipeg.
“There’s so many threats,” said Adam Fox, who collected three assists in the win, including one on Zibanejad’s second power-play goal of the night. “You take away one, another guy is going to hurt you. I think that’s the good thing about it, there’s not one way to necessarily stop it.”
The dominance of the power play has become contagious throughout the lineup. They feed off of it. When Anaheim was called for a delay-of-game penalty, Zibanejad found Vincent Trocheck for a tap-in goal just under seven minutes into the game. Trocheck then returned the favor on the Rangers’ next power play, feeding Zibanejad as the Swedish center crashed the net for the 2-0 score at 13:10 of the opening frame.
Trocheck, who the Rangers signed this offseason to replace Ryan Strome as the No. 2 center and on the first power-play unit, has fit in rather nicely. His goal and assist on the power play in the win was his second multi-point game of the season.
“I think if you look at the top power plays around the league, they’ve all played together for a long time,” Zibanejad said. “Obviously, Troch being new, I think it’s just trying to work with him as much as possible.”
Winger Sammy Blais made his season debut Monday night, skating on the right wing of the third line next to Jimmy Vesey and Chytil. … Defenseman Zac Jones was back in the lineup, replacing Libor Hajek on the bottom pair next to Braden Schneider.
Vitali Kravtsov (upper body) and Ryan Carpenter (skate cut) both skated individually Monday. Gerard Gallant said Kravtsov is close to getting cleared to play, but the head coach wouldn’t say if the Russian winger would go right back into the lineup.
“We’ll see what the team is playing like,” he said.