Amy Irvin/The Hockey Writers

Amy Irvin/The Hockey Writers

The Rangers are in a pretty pickle right now. They are in second place, sure, but does it really feel like they are in second place? It does not. This team hasn’t given everyone that warm and fuzzy feeling that the previous two teams has. It has us asking if you can really trust this team come playoff time.

One area that needs addressing is the powerplay. Alain Vigneault spent an eternity thinking Ryan McDonagh and Dan Boyle can anchor the top unit, relegating Keith Yandle to second unit minutes. This was, in a word, stupid. Yandle is the Rangers’ best powerplay guy, and while it took way too long to get him on the top unit, he is there now and playing the most powerplay minutes on the team (among defensemen) since Christmas.

While McDonagh hasn’t been a problem on the powerplay, Boyle has been a bit of a black hole this year. Larry Brooks noted that Boyle has been on the ice for just one powerplay goal in 64:47 of powerplay ice time since Christmas. Part of that is diminishing skill and part of it is a mixture of many other factors (shot generation, teammates, etc). But is that enough to warrant taking him off the powerplay and replacing him with a forward?

Looking at point generation on the powerplay, it’s clear that Yandle, Derick Brassard, and Mats Zuccarello are the top powerplay performers for the Rangers. After that, it’s a hodge-podge of above average and mediocre players, with Boyle right smack in the middle.

Outside of point production, Boyle also sits in the middle-to-bottom of the pack in shot generation on the powerplay. I’d say he’s snake-bitten, but his on-ice SH% is 11.5%, second on the team to Zuccarello. Not much appears to be working in Boyle’s favor, at least on paper.

What does work for Boyle is the fact that he still has a great offensive mind, knows how to work a powerplay, still commands attention from the penalty kill, and is a right-handed shot. That last factor is big, since Derek Stepan is the only other right-handed shot on the powerplay. The ability to one-time a cross-ice pass is critical. Just watch the Rangers kill penalties, and you see why.

But even with that factor, there’s significant evidence that shows four forwards are better than three on the powerplay. There are certainly risks with this approach, as Matt outlined in the linked article. But one point Matt mentions that I do want to mention is an elite powerplay QB, like Yandle (9th in powerplay P/60), can warrant the use of a 3F/2D approach to the same results.

Perhaps the answer isn’t going to a 4F/1D approach across the board. Perhaps it’s a matter of just getting the best out of the three defensemen used on the powerplay. Give McDonagh the 4F/1D approach, which should make PP2 more consistent. Put Boyle with Yandle, and it maximizes Boyle’s remaining hockey while still giving Yandle the one-timer on the off-wing (in place of Stepan, now on PP2). A major overhaul isn’t needed, just a simple tweaking.

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