Thoughts on the new Rangers powerplay units

After yet another humiliating loss to Tampa over the weekend, the Rangers made just one change to the lineup. New Rangers powerplay units were introduced, though it’s really just dropping Mika Zibanejad from PP1 and putting Alexis Lafreniere there in his place. Zibanejad was moved to PP2 with Filip Chytil, Reilly Smith, Will Cuylle, and K’Andre Miller. I have some quick thoughts.

1. The new Rangers powerplay units were long overdue. Not just because of their inability to score, which can be influenced by poor luck or just going cold, but because they look stale and dead inside. There is no puck movement, no creativity, no cycling, nothing. They just do the same old thing where they force feed Zibanejad one-timers, and that clearly wasn’t working anymore.

2. Zibanejad’s struggles are well, well documented. This isn’t to harp on him, and it’s not fair to put all the issues on him. This move should have been made a month ago, so that’s on Peter Laviolette. But the five guys on the ice should have stopped trying to force that option, and let the guys who are actually scoring–Chris Kreider and Artemi Panarin–get those chances instead. Zibanejad’s presence would still need to be respected, and in theory if Panarin started firing away, it opens more lanes for Zibanejad.

3. PP1 will now have Panarin in Zibanejad’s spot and Lafreniere in Panarin’s old spot. This does give the Rangers a second one-timer option that is preferred, but wasn’t really needed for a few seasons. Balance is needed, and the new Rangers powerplay units, at least PP1, has far more balance now than it did before without any drop-off in skill or talent.

4. Perhaps the new Rangers powerplay units will also mean more balanced deployment between both PP1 and PP2. PP2 never really got a chance because of how well PP1 clicked these past few seasons. It won’t be a 50/50 split, and you can’t do that when PP1 has the only guy still scoring (Panarin) and the young kid who is clearly the future (Lafreniere).

5. Based off the practice video, it looks like PP2 will have Chytil as the bumper, Zibanejad in his spot, Cuylle in front, Miller up top, and Smith on the off-wing. This makes the second new Rangers powerplay unit balanced as well, at least in terms of handedness, but unless Smith shoots regularly, PP2 will again be limited to getting Zibanejad opportunities. If this is to work, deferring to Zibanejad will need to be an option, not the option, if you get what I mean.

6. Don’t expect the new Rangers powerplay units to magically fix this team. It won’t. Changing special teams won’t fix the mental mistakes winding up in the back of their net. It’s odd since the 5v5 play is largely fine, it’s just the Rangers can’t keep mistakes to a minimum, out of the net, or even just make them smaller impacting mistakes.

When it’s mistakes like this, the only people that can save the Rangers are the players. Worst to first can be done, but boy do they have their work cut out for them.