The New York Rangers unveiled their five-forward power play for the first time in a full game on Tuesday night against the Dallas Stars.
It's safe to say that the Rangers will have to grow into this unique power-play setup.
With Adam Fox landing on long-term injured reserve, Mike Sullivan opted to use a five-forward power-play setup featuring Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, J.T. Miller, Vincent Trocheck, and Will Cuylle.
The Rangers went 0-4 on the power play against Dallas, and their new setup ran into some problems.
To start off on a positive note, their breakouts into the zone were almost all seamless, and they had no issues in that aspect of the man advantage.
It was in the offensive zone where troubles arose.
The five forwards struggled to sustain pressure in the offensive zone, while failing to get many shots on net for much of the night.
Panarin took on the responsibility of playing the point, which is difficult for forwards, given they are not accustomed to skating laterally and holding the line in the way defensemen do.
“We put Bread in a spot that he is not accustomed to playing,” Sullivan said. “As talented as he is, there's going to be a little bit of a learning curve there. I think he's going to be a fast study because of his intellect and his talent. I just think they need more repetitions out there together, and they'll and they'll feel their way through it.”
The Stars naturally have an aggressive penalty kill, which posed issues for the Rangers. Dallas tested New York’s power play, aggressively attacking the front of the zone, leading to a couple of odd-man rushes.
The Rangers’ vulnerability to giving up shorthanded chances without Fox proved to be a weakness.
Breaking Down The Rangers' Unique Five-Forward Power-Play Strategy
With the New York <a href="https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/new-york-rangers">Rangers</a> placing Adam Fox on long-term injured reserve, Mike Sullivan decided to implement a unique power-play system featuring five forwards.
“It’s a pretty good PK too,” Panarin said. “They go three high aggressive. I was not used to it, staying in that position when they go that aggressive. That’s why I tried to deliver it to the net everything.”
As the game went on though, the Rangers’ top power-play unit began to find a rhythm and even looked explosive at certain points with some of the high-quality scoring chances they were creating, specifically during the team’s four-minute power play in the third period.
This five-forward power-play system presents a number of issues and weaknesses, yet it could be dynamic if all five forwards are able to get on the same page and grow accustomed to this unique setup.
“I thought they got better as the game went on,” Sullivan said. “I thought that four-minute power play, they were zipping it around pretty good. They had a number of really good looks on that four-minute power play in the third period… The only thing I think we'd like to see different was one of those going into the net. That would be great. I thought they got better as the game went on, I think they'll get more comfortable with the repetitions that they're getting.”