Rangers power play struggles in 3-1 loss to Oilers, Digi Mart USA News (Edmonton, Alberta): The Rangers hung with an Oilers team that has three of the top five producing skaters in the NHL on Monday night. Despite Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl (twice) landing on the scoresheet, the Blueshirts kept this 3-1 loss relatively low-event and generated spurts of offensive pressure.
As disjointed as their power play has been all season long, the lack of production had never so glaringly cost the Rangers as it did Monday night. The visitors went 0-for-5 with the man advantage, including two in the third period and one with 1:27 left in regulation.
The Rangers went without a single shot on goal during the first power play before giving up an empty-net goal to Draisaitl on the second. After the 4-1 loss to the Oilers on Nov. 1, the Rangers coaching staff broke up the two power play units the team had relied on for most of the season, and leaned on double-shifting Adam Fox as well.
Plugging players into different positions has not had the desired effect, and neither has double-shifting Fox. The Rangers carried a 20.8 power play percentage into Monday’s contest, which ranked 19th in the NHL.
A second-ranked penalty kill has offset some of the power-play struggles, but the Blueshirts are built for the man advantage to be a separating factor, and it simply has not been. For the second time in nine days, McDavid opened the scoring against the Rangers, extending his point streak to 19 consecutive games, or every Oilers game this season.
While McDavid’s goal in their Nov. 1 meeting was an individual effort on Dylan Garand, Monday night saw an accidental assist from the Rangers rookie goalie. Inadvertently hitting the side of the net on an attempted pass from the trapezoid, Garand lost the puck with McDavid lurking and could not reach the crease in time to stop the three-time Hart Trophy winner from scoring what may have been the easiest of his 11 goals this season.
Garand and the Rangers recovered fairly well for the remainder of the period, but the visitors fell behind by two early in the second period. Draisaitl chipped the puck in from the high slot with McDavid battling Braden Schneider in front of Garand.
The Rangers challenged for goaltender interference, but the challenge was unsuccessful.
With the Rangers already down a man due to the failed challenge, Schneider was then called for delay of game for flipping the puck out of play, giving the Oilers a 5-on-3 advantage for 21 seconds. The visitors fended off both power plays, and the Rangers scored a shorthanded goal to stay competitive.
Taking a leading feed from Mika Zibanejad right out of the penalty box, Jaroslav Chmelar sniped the puck into the top corner on Oilers goalie Devon Levi for the first shorthanded goal of his young career and the 2-1 score.
