It cannot be a coincidence the Rangers began to win in conjunction with reducing the number of penalties they were taking.
The question, though, as the club seeks to extend its winning streak to five games tonight in Ottawa, is whether the Rangers are playing better hockey because they’re not burdened with killing so many penalties or whether they’re not facing as many short-handed situations because they’re playing better hockey.
“To be honest about it, we tried to focus from the start on not taking penalties, but we were so far behind as a team because of all the travel and everything associated with that, we were taking penalties because we were a step behind almost all the time,” Brad Richards told The Post following yesterday’s practice preceding the flight to Ottawa. “It would have been different if we had been taking a series of undisciplined or lazy penalties, but that was not the case.
“Most of our penalties came because we were a little bit late to the puck. We were chasing all the time. We looked really slow, which we aren’t. So I think there was a sense we would be able to take of that when we got back home and into a regular routine that would allow us to get our legs under us.”
In their first five games, the Rangers were shorthanded 32 times while earning only 18 power plays. But over their past eight games, the Rangers have been shorthanded 24 times — thus facing fewer than half as many power plays per — while being awarded 41 man-advantages in that stretch.
They enter tonight’s match with a plus-three on power-play opportunities, 59-56 for the season. The Rangers are plus-one on specialty teams, scoring and allowing 13 power-play goals while scoring once while short-handed.
“We started out the same way last year, taking way too many penalties, so that was something we tried to address in Stockholm even before the season started,” Ryan Callahan said. “But we found ourselves out of position too often the first couple of weeks and that forced us into taking penalties.
“Like Richie says, when we started to skate, that’s when we cut down on the penalties. If you’re there, you don’t have to hold.”
And if your team isn’t short-handed an average of more than six times per game, as were the Rangers through five matches, your penalty-killers aren’t overburdened and are thus fresh for even-strength and power play duty.
“It’s a huge difference that’s obvious to me,” said Callahan, who is on the club’s top penalty-killing tandem with Brandon Dubinsky and also is on the first power-play unit.
John Tortorella opened the season using Richards and Marian Gaborik as a short-handed combination, but the coach now generally uses Richards and Gaborik on the shift immediately following the penalty kill.
“When you’re playing in the West with that schedule, there are some games you know you aren’t going to have good legs, so your power play has to be deadly,” Richards said. “The first couple of weeks here kind of felt like that.
“But we found ways to win while going through that. It wasn’t pretty, but you never apologize for winning. It still isn’t all there, but it’s better, and it’s getting better, and that’s encouraging.”