I am not going to get overexcited that the Rangers scored three power play goals against the Flyers this afternoon. After all, it was the Flyers and Bobrovsky not the Red Wings or the Penguins. Call me when the Rangers consistently score on 20% of the power play chances and then I’ll get excited.

I don’t get it. Are the players on this team learning impaired? What did the coaching staff do to finally make the light bulb go on over the Rangers heads. Did pounding a power play strategy into their brains finally infiltrate their gray matter?

Talk about a 180. I’m sure there are those of you out there who would encourage me not to question why, to  just sit back and enjoy the ride. But doesn’t this turn around beg the question? The Rangers were 50 % with the man advantage this afternoon!

What did they do so differently today that haven’t done in the last 7 years. Was Bobrovsky just a sieve? Was the Flyer penalty kill at fault? Where did the Ranger go right?

Let’s review, shall we.

Power Play Goal Number One – Ryan Callahan from Richards and Gaborik

Power Play Unit One. Rangers break into the Flyers zone on the rush. Richards on right wing passes to Gaborik  at center. Gaborik sees Callahan all alone on the left, top of the circle. Stephan has on Flyer on him. The other three Flyers are stacking the slot, watching Gaborik and no one has marked Cally. Flyer Penalty Kill Fail.

Power Play Goal Number Two – Marian Gaborik from Richards and Stepan

Power Play Unit One. Again off the rush. Stepan, near the goal line to the right of BoBo, passes the puck back to Richards at the top of the right circle. Richards passes to Gaborik in the slot, with no Flyer marking him, for the redirection.   Flyer Penalty Kill Fail.

Power Play Goal Number Three – Ryan Callahan from Del Zotto and Gaborik

Power Play Unit One. This time the Flyers have a chance to get set up to defend but Braydon Coburn gets burned because he doesn’t swivel his head to see Callahan parked on Bobo’s doorstep ready for the put home on the pass from Del Zotto. Bad Braydon. Flyer Penalty Kill Fail.

Analysis complete. It is as I suspected. There was a total breakdown of the Flyers penalty kill. The lesson to take away from this is that if you don’t give the Flyers enough time to set up, they are vulnerable off the rush. Philadelphia is not a particularly fast team. Faster teams perhaps would not have made the same mistakes.

To the Rangers credit, they did  look much more organized. The first unit of Richards, Callahan, Gaborik, Stepan and Del Zotto all looked good together. They weren’t chasing the puck along the boards or  behind the net because Philadelphia wasn’t really fore checking. All the action was happening in front of Bobrovsky, not behind him.

Also, when the Flyers did get set up on power play goal number three, the Rangers kept their feet moving and cycled well down low. Most importantly, they had a man at or arriving near the net to take a pass for a shot. That’s a tremendous improvement over the pass- pass- pass- shot and out of the zone bullshit we’ve been watching for more years then I care to count.

Three power play goals in one night does not make up for a dearth of power play goals all season. If the Rangers want me to believe they have resolved their power play issues, they must sustain their scoring with the man advantage against faster teams with a better penalty kill then the Flyers.

All this aside, do the Rangers have the Flyers number or what? Nice to see all that orange and black go down to defeat for the fifth time!

Posted under New York Rangers