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The Rangers’ five-forward experiment on the first power-play unit didn’t result in any man-up goals in Friday night’s loss to the Maple Leafs.
But with regular PP quarterback Adam Fox out of the lineup with an upper-body injury, head coach Peter Laviolette could stick with the alignment at least for Sunday’s home game against Nashville.
The Rangers couldn’t work on the power play Saturday because only six players took part in an optional skate in Tarrytown, but Laviolette said the coaching staff and the players were “going through things and talking about things.”
Without Fox, Laviolette used a quintet of forwards Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, J.T. Miller, Vincent Trochek and Alexis Lafrenière as his PP1 for the first time against the Maple Leafs.
They didn’t score in three opportunities, and the Rangers mustered only four shots in 4:23 overall in those situations.
“I wish it was working right away, but I think this is honestly the first time [Saturday] we get to watch it, look at it and see, what are the things that we can do better? And how can we use the fact that we’re five forwards?” Zibanejad said after the game. “Obviously, we wanted to be better today and we weren’t, but we’ll look at it and make sure we’re better the next time.”
After Matt Rempe played a strong game and scored a goal in Tuesday’s win over the Islanders, the 6-foot-8 forward logged just seven shifts for 4:12 of ice time against the Leafs, including one 30-second shift in the final 30-plus minutes.
Asked for the reason he cut back on the fourth line, Laviolette said, “Sometimes it’s just the flow of the game and the feel of the game.” He also said it was “one of the best games I’ve seen out of Trocheck’s line and I wanted to get them out there.”
Chris Kreider was placed on IR, but he can be activated at any time and still is considered day to day.
Kreider, who has missed the past three games with an upper-body injury believed to be unrelated to a previous back issue, was one of the few players on the ice Saturday.
Brett Berard was recalled from AHL Hartford.
