For a team having a hard time scoring goals, especially at home, the Rangers power-play failure has been even more damaging.
They entered Tuesday 0-for-9 in their previous four games with a man advantage, then went 0-for-3 in a 3-0 loss to Carolina at Madison Square Garden.
Making matters worse was the Hurricanes taking the lead on a power-play goal in the first period.
After the loss, coach Mike Sullivan hinted that changes could be on the way for the power-play unit that’s been unable to produce much of anything.
“One of the reasons we stayed with the group we had to this point is we felt like, both from the eye test and analytically, this group has done a pretty good job as far as generating quality looks,” Sullivan said. “At some point, maybe we need to make some adjustments and we’ll certainly do that.”
For the season, the Rangers have been among the worst teams in the league on the power play, and Adam Fox, part of that first power-play unit, acknowledged the recent failure and how much it’s impacted the team.
“Power plays are difference-makers,” Fox said. “They get one [Tuesday]. We don’t. That’s the difference right there, especially early in the game.”
Fox called special teams “a huge factor. It’s definitely cost us a few games.”
And Mika Zibanejad was once again left bewildered by the inability of the Rangers to come through in 5-on-4 situations.
“I don’t know,” Zibanejad said. “We keep talking about stuff we do well. We had maybe three or four grade A [chances]. We have to find a way to put the puck in the net.”
With two days before their next game in Detroit, the Rangers have a chance to work on that aspect of their game.
“We’ll tweak it,” Sullivan said. “We’re gonna try to do our best to find solutions and give these guys something to hang their hat on. We can go at this maybe a little bit of a different way.”
K’Andre Miller returned to Madison Square Garden for the first time since his July trade to Carolina, but missed the game with a lower-body injury.
He reflected on his five years with the Rangers after being the team’s first-round pick in 2018.
“Confidence-wise and just what I wanted from myself, I wasn’t getting a lot of the results I wanted here,” Miller said at Carolina’s morning skate at MSG. “I blame myself for that. I had some struggles throughout my years here. The ups and downs, I think, just kind of took a toll and was in my head for a lot of the time I was here.”
Miller joined Carolina on a sign-and-trade, inking an eight-year deal worth $60 million.
“He couldn’t have played much better at the start,” Carolina head coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “It’s the range. It’s his skating ability. We might be almost burned, but we close it off because we got two extra feet of reach. And then his skating ability fits perfectly, getting up the ice and doing everything.”
Defenseman Urho Vaakanainen was sidelined Tuesday after being held out of practice Monday with a lower-body injury. Matthew Robertson filled in for Vaakanainen.
— with AP
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