Rangers power-play unit a work in progress after roster makeover

The top Rangers power-play unit has been ironclad for years, featuring an essentially set-in-stone group whose turnover since the 2019-20 campaign has been minimal season to season. One power-play staple out.One power-play staple in.  Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Mollie Walker about the inside buzz on the Rangers.

Since they shipped Chris Kreider to Anaheim two summers ago, however, the Blueshirts traded away two more cornerstones of their first unit: Artemi Panarin and Vincent Trocheck.It guaranteed a much different look and feel this season for a Rangers power play that had become very predictable around the NHL. Adam Fox and Mika Zibanejad are the lone holdovers from the 2019-20 season. Captain J.T.

Miller ultimately replaced Kreider. The one-in, one-out trend continued with Panarin’s departure and Pavel Dorofeyev’s arrival. And in his seventh NHL season, for the very first time, Alexis Lafrenière finally took his spot on the first unit out of training camp. The 3-for-14 (21.4 percent) showing with the man advantage through five games is indicative of the adjustment, especially considering two of those goals were scored by the second power-play unit that features Sean Durzi, Gabe Perreault, Oliver Bjorkstrand, Will Cuylle and Eeli Tolvanen. “I think it’s a work in progress right now,” head coach Mike Sullivan said after practice Thursday before the Rangers headed for Washington, D.C.“We’re still trying to work through it.

But if you remember last year, it was the same thing with our group.Early on, it was a process in trying to get us to where we want to be.

I don’t think we’re there yet.I think we’re still feeling it out.

Obviously, adding Pav to the group, he can finish, he can really shoot the puck.That’s probably his greatest attribute, but it also has altered the shots, the righties, lefties, things of that nature.

It just changes the makeup a little bit ...