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Continued power-play woes weighing on Rangers

Brad Richards

Brad Richards

AP

The New York Rangers had six power-play opportunities on Monday and failed to capitalize on any of them, bringing them down to just 1-for-14 with the man advantage in the Stanley Cup Final. Given how close Games 1 and 2 were, it doesn’t feel like a stretch to suggest that this could be a very different series if the Rangers were doing just a bit of a better job in that regard.

“We had a lot of power play opportunities but we didn’t give ourselves a chance on rims, stopping and battling for pucks,” Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh said after Monday’s 3-0 loss to Los Angeles. “They cleared a lot. It’s the third or the fourth shot that we say are going to be goals and we didn’t give ourselves enough of those opportunities.”

The Kings certainly deserve some credit for shutting down the Rangers’ power play, but at the same time what they’re doing isn’t unique. The Rangers only have a 12.6% power-play success rate in the postseason after being a middle-of-the-road team in that regard during the regular season.

New York has leaned heavily on Brad Richards, giving him an average of 4:39 power-play minutes per game in the playoffs, including 8:47 minutes last night. However, Richards has just four power-play points in 23 postseason contests, which ties him for fourth on the Rangers and would put him behind six players if he was a member of the Los Angeles Kings.

The Rangers need more out of Richards, but he’s certainly not the only one they need to step up. Even if they’ve held their own or even outplayed the Kings at times during this series, now that they’re down 3-0, it would take a tremendous effort on their parts to overcome this deficit. Any mistake or missed opportunity could be fatal for them now.

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