If the Rangers really dive into the market for a big-time defenseman, it might be largely because of their power play coming up small yet again.
The Blueshirts’ man-advantage went 2-for-24 (8.3 percent) in the six games against the Senators and finished the postseason 3-for-39 (7.7 percent). This is after a regular season when the power play had a revival of sorts, finishing 11th in the league (20.2 percent), the first time the unit had finished higher than 14th in the past seven years.
The Rangers’ man-advantage hasn’t finished in the top 10 in the league since 2006-07. When they lost in the first round to the Penguins last season, they went 2-for-19 (10.5 percent).
“Power play is something we always talk about being a big part of it,” said center Derek Stepan. “Special teams just wasn’t able to get it done for us in this series.”
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Coach Alain Vigneault changed his units once Pavel Buchnevich came out of the lineup, starting with Game 3 of this series. That bumped Stepan up to the first unit, with captain Ryan McDonagh acting as the blue-line quarterback, along with Mats Zuccarello, Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad. The second unit was anchored by rookie Brady Skjei, alongside another defenseman, Nick Holden, with Rick Nash, Kevin Hayes and J.T. Miller up front.
Rookie forward Jimmy Vesey got just 7:25 of power-play time all postseason.
“Our power play was well-prepared,” coach Alain Vigneault said. “Our guys knew where the opportunities would come from, and at the end of the day, we didn’t execute quickly enough. We had a couple looks [in Game 6], but it obviously wasn’t good enough.”
The Rangers finished the regular season with the 16th most hits in the league, averaging 20.9 per game. They picked it up physically in the playoffs, averaging 41.6 hits per game, and their 499 were the most in the postseason at the time of their elimination.
After a hot-and-cold postseason, Chris Kreider showed up late in Game 6, scoring a goal to cut the Senators’ lead to 3-2 just 53 seconds into the third period. Kreider has now recorded nine goals and 12 points in 20 career games in which the Rangers were facing elimination.
It was Kreider’s 23rd career playoff goal in 77 games, all with the Rangers, passing Vic Hadfield, Anders Hedberg, and Don Maloney for sole possession of seventh place on the franchise’s all-time playoff goals list.