SUNRISE, Fla. — It has been the topic that no one on the Rangers really wants to discuss: the power play.
Yet after Tuesday night’s crushing 3-2 loss to the NHL-worst Panthers at the BB&T Center, the focus can no longer be on the surrounding positive.
“At the end of the day we lose the special teams battle,” captain Ryan Callahan said, “and that hurt us.”
Having gone 8-2-1 in their past 11 games coming in, the Blueshirts’ man-advantage has been the blemish on the face of what has been a pretty run into playoff position.
Yet with the game on the line, the Rangers down 2-1 and just over three minutes remaining, the power play is what failed them drastically. They got one 45-foot shot from Rick Nash, and when they pulled Henrik Lundqvist to go 6-on-4, they surrendered a shorthanded empty-netter to Drew Shore, what would turn out to be the game-winner.
It was the end of the team’s 0-for-3 night on the man-advantage, six minutes squandered in a game they needed in order to clinch a playoff berth.
If Friday’s ridiculous 8-4 win over the Sabres is omitted, the Rangers’ power play has now gone 1-for-24 over the past seven games. Yet the players will point to the one goal they got on the man-advantage against the Devils on Sunday, and the 2-for-4 performance against the Sabres, which took place in a game so rife “puck luck” — as coach John Tortorella would describe it — that it couldn’t denote improvement on special teams.
One of the things Tortorella has tried to do to help create a spark is put 22-year-old defenseman John Moore on one of the points. Since Moore came over in the Marian Gaborik trade with the Blue Jackets, Tortorella has been impressed with his skating ability and his offensive prowess. Now he’s allowing those talents to be used in a situation where they might flourish, giving him 1:29 of his 13:28 total ice time on the power play.
“He’s got a big shot and he’s not afraid to use it,” Tortorella said. “He’s made some good plays. He’s surprised me with some of the offensive plays he’s made, not just on the power play, but on the 5-on-5. So we’re going to keep him there and see where it goes.”
* The fourth line of Chris Kreider, Darroll Powe and Arron Asham continued their existence stapled to the bench, none of them getting a single shift in the third period. All three got two shifts in the second period, and Powe played a bit more on the penalty kill in the first.
* Defenseman Steve Eminger was also a casualty of the shortened bench, getting one shift in the third period. It happened to be the shift when Taylor Pyatt scored a goal to tie it 1-1, but Eminger never saw the ice again.
* The lineup stayed the same for the fourth straight game, meaning Brian Boyle remained out with his right knee injury, and defensemen Roman Hamrlik and Matt Gilroy were healthy scratches.