2. Execute better on the power play
As we mentioned on the first page, the New York Rangers have actually played pretty well in the majority of their 14 games this season, aside from one or two notable exceptions. However, one of the main reasons they are under .500 is because of their inability to convert on the man advantage.
This is a problem dating back to last year when the Rangers almost sat back and admired their own talent on the power play, chucking the puck back and forth between stars like it was a fun game and getting more obsessed with passing the puck than actually shooting it.
It is a fatal flaw that has carried over to this season, too, and it is something that has consistently frustrated Head Coach David Quinn, who has accepted that his young team either pass the puck when they should shoot it or shoot the puck when they should pass it.
I mean, when you have the likes of Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, Alexis Lafreniere, Kaapo Kakko, Chris Kreider and Adam Fox all out there, you should be doing better than converting at a 11.5 percent clip, which is ranked 28th in the entire National Hockey League.
Now, to get our point across further, the Ottawa Senators, who have been historically bad this year, are ranked higher on the PP than the Rangers, as are the likes of the New Jersey Devils, the Arizona Coyotes and the New York Islanders, all teams who have considerably less talent to throw out on the man advantage compared to the Rangers.
It has consistently hurt this team and it has been even more of a letdown when you consider that the Blueshirts rank 9th on the penalty kill (83.0 percent) and went on a crazy run without allowing a power play goal. So, if the New York Rangers can simplify things on the man advantage and buy into the mantra that good things happen when you throw the puck on net and get to the dirty areas, then hopefully the power play can start clicking as it should and, if that happens, this team should start winning a lot more of those close battles.