‘Our power play has to get better’: Rangers struggle in this area massive concern

The New York Rangers scored two short-handed goals on the same penalty kill for the first time since 2014 but could not figure it out on their own power play. That helped facilitate a crushing 7-3 loss on home ice to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday.

This matchup had massive playoff implications, since each team came in with 68 points in a tight race for the two wild-card spots in the Eastern Conference. With the win, Columbus (31-24-8) sits alone in the first wild card, while the Rangers (31-27-6) are ninth in the conference, one point out of the second wild card.

A timely power-play goal might have made a game-changing difference Sunday for the Rangers, who’ve lost three in a row (0-1-2).

After trailing by one for most of the first period, New York evened the score at 19:31 thanks to a perfect deflection by Artemi Panarin on a shot by Alexis Lafreniere, marking Panarin’s fifth straight game with a goal.

The Rangers had a golden chance to take the lead seven seconds later when Denton Mateychuk went to the box for interference. Panarin fired a shot on net and sent another wide in the 22 seconds before the period ended, but that would be all for the Rangers’ power play.

The first intermission zapped New York of its momentum; the Rangers failed to get anything going on the remaining 1:38 of the penalty once the second period started. That was a crusher for the Rangers.

The timely penalty kill jump-started Columbus, specifically second-year center Adam Fantilli. The 20-year-old scored two goals within 26 seconds at even strength, the first at 3:07 and the second at 3:33.

New York fought back, this time showing prowess on the other side of special teams. With Will Cuylle spending two minutes in the penalty box for holding, the Blue Jackets could have blown the game wide open. 

Instead, two short-handed goals knotted the score: the first by Braden Schneider at 6:54, the second scored by Chris Kreider at 7:36 on a 2-on-0 breakaway with Mika Zibanejad, igniting the Madison Square Garden crowd.

Similar to how they started the period, the Blue Jackets ended the second with back-to-back goals. Mathieu Olivier gave Columbus the lead at 17:03 and Dante Fabbro added to it at 18:47. It was a stunning turn of events, but the Rangers had a chance on the power play early in the third period to swing momentum back in their favor.

A delay of game penalty by Blue Jackets defenseman Ivan Provorov at 5:57 brought the Garden back to life. That changed when the Rangers again failed on the power play in a key moment of the game.

“We’ve got to score,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette lamented postgame. “That’s a chance to get that fourth goal, or that’s a chance to get that second goal in the first period.” 

Columbus put the game away with two goals soon after, including Fantilli’s third of the night to complete the second hat trick of his young career.

New York failed to convert on those two key power-play opportunities and went 0-for-4 on the night – adding to a now 1-for-21 slide in the past seven games.

“There’s been a lot in the last couple of games where I feel like we could’ve scored a few, but just pucks didn’t go in,” center Vincent Trocheck said about the struggling power play.

While the recent struggles could be attributed to the absence of defenseman Adam Fox, New York’s power play has not been up to snuff all season long. The Rangers’ 0-fer against Columbus dropped them to 24th in the League at 19.7 percent. The power-play woes this season are a massive step down from a formerly consistent part of the Rangers’ game – they ranked third in the 2023-24 season (26.4 percent), seventh in 2022-23 (24.1 percent) and fourth in 2021-22 (25.2 percent)

“Obviously our power play has to get better,” Zibanejad said.

Rangers sloppy defensive play also cause for concern: ‘We’re shooting ourselves in the foot’

The Rangers’ effective penalty kill helped mask defensive struggles that plagued them throughout their crucial loss to the Blue Jackets

Jonathan Quick was far from stellar in net, saving only 21 of 28 shots faced. But the defense did him no favors, giving up numerous Grade A chances to the Blue Jackets. The Rangers were outshot 24-15 at even strength and allowed 11 high-danger chances while generating only seven, per Natural Stat Trick.

“We’re shooting ourselves in the foot,” Trocheck said. “I don’t know how many of their goals were just a product of us giving them a Grade A chance.”

The two short-handed goals briefly swung the momentum in New York’s favor, but the Blueshirts failed to capitalize, ultimately giving up four unanswered goals.

“When we made it 3-3, we needed to grab the juice, get the fourth goal and then push the game in our direction,” Laviolette said. “It didn’t happen.”

The fourth goal never came for New York, as the Blue Jackets dominated the rest of the game to win 7-3. However, with a packed schedule ahead, the Rangers can’t afford to dwell on the loss.

“We have nine games in 15 or 16 days, we don’t have time to pout,” J.T. Miller said.

The Rangers start a three-game road trip Tuesday when they travel to Winnipeg to face the Jets, who are tied for the most points in the NHL (44-17-4, 92 points). Then it’s a visit to the Minnesota Wild on Thursday before a rematch with the Blue Jackets in Columbus on Saturday.