The Rangers Need a New Power Play Identity
With Kreider gone and last year’s power play in shambles, it’s time for the Rangers to rethink their approach with the man advantage.
It’s not always one of the most obvious areas of concern throughout the regular season, but special teams can oftentimes be make-or-break come playoff time. Historically speaking, the New York Rangers have been a strong penalty killing team. But the same can’t always be said for the power play. In recent memory, the Rangers power play has been fairly good over the years, but the results have varied quite a bit.
While there have been times where they were borderline unstoppable, two things are for certain: 1) the Rangers had a significant drop off in power play percentage last season, and 2) they will be moving forward without one of their strongest power play assets.
Since the 2020-21 season, the Rangers have been gradually more and more successful on the power play. A league-average power play percentage typically hovers around 20-21 percent. In 2021, the Rangers finished the season with a power play success rate of 20.6 percent. The following season, it boosted up to 25.2 percent, before a slight drop to 24 percent in the 2022-23 season. During the Rangers’ President's Trophy-winning season, they saw their highest power play success rate of the last five years at just over 26 percent.
All of that sounds perfectly fine. Last season, however? That number plummeted down to 17.6 percent.
Why the sudden drop? Well, the most obvious answer is the team, overall, was awful. But a large part of that also had to do with their secret weapon—Chris Kreider as a net front presence—was not producing the way he was once able to in prior seasons. In that same five year stretch, Kreider contributed 11, 26, 8, 18, and 6 power play goals in each season. The 26 goals may have been an anomaly as part of a wild 52-goal campaign that year. But for a guy who has averaged 14 power play goals per season in recent memory to only find the back of the net six times was a major reason for the team’s shortcomings with the man advantage.
With that in mind, it seems to be time for the Rangers to seriously reconsider their identity on the power play.
