The Rangers have been unrecognizable for a multitude of reasons this season, but none more glaring than the deterioration of their special teams.
What was once their X factor, their bread and butter, their specialty, the Blueshirts power play — and more recently the penalty kill, too — has become a handicap, a source of disruption and an all-around disaster that was on full display in a 4-0 loss to the Devils Saturday afternoon at Prudential Center.
While problems with the man advantage have spanned the entire 2024-25 campaign, they have seemingly only gotten worse.
“It’s the difference right now, right?” special teams contributor Adam Fox asked rhetorically. “The margin is so thin. I think five-on-five we’ve been pretty good, and you let up shorthanded goals, you let up power-play goals against, you lose games by one to two. Tie five-on-five or even win the five-on-five game, it’s costing us. It has been for a little bit now.”
The loss kept the Rangers on the outside of the Eastern Conference wild-card cutoff at 79 points, which is four behind the Canadiens after the Habs beat the Flyers on Saturday night.
Saturday also marked the Rangers’ eighth swing and miss on an opportunity to pick up a third win in a row, which somehow hasn’t happened since Nov. 14-19.
And, after the Rangers were blown out 5-0 at the Prudential Center on Dec. 23, the Devils ensured their cross-Hudson rivals didn’t score a single goal in their building this season.
Many of the Rangers’ issues this season haven’t been new, just exacerbated.
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Part of that is because the aspects of their game that usually make up for them — like the power play and penalty kill — have not been able to do so.
The Rangers gave up a shorthanded goal to Jesper Bratt in the second period before finishing 0-for-2 on the power play Saturday, giving the club an abysmal 2-for-43 showing over their past 16 games.
At the start of the game, they owned the sixth-worst power play in the NHL at 17.4 percent.
“Probably a little bit of everything,” Fox said when asked if it was coming down to execution or confidence at this point. “The execution is certainly not there, but I think when you go on one of those slumps, you start maybe trying to force the issue a little more. I think it could be a reason we’re even giving up chances more than ever, too.
“It’s not that we’re not scoring, it’s we’re not even generating any momentum from it.”
While the Rangers still have the sixth-best PK at 81.7 percent, it has not been as effective as needed lately.
The Devils, who have outscored the Rangers 16-4 this season, finished 1-for-2 on the power play.
The Rangers have surrendered one power-play goal in each of the past three games, as well as five in their past five.
A scuffle in front of the Devils net more than halfway through the middle frame led to the Rangers’ second power-play opportunity.
With Dawson Mercer sent off for tripping and Vincent Trocheck and Timo Meier (two goals) earning matching roughing penalties, the Rangers had a prime opportunity to remain competitive.
Caught too far down in the zone, the Rangers were suddenly chasing a shorthanded three-on-one Devils rush opportunity that concluded with Bratt knocking the puck in for the 2-0 edge.
It counted as the second shorthanded goal the Rangers have allowed in as many games, as well as the third in their past four, after they surrendered one in Anaheim last week.
“We’re looking for something offensively, maybe pressing too much,” head coach Peter Laviolette said, after the Devils scored twice more in the third period. “Any time you’re doing that, you’re subject to get caught the other way.”
