The New York Rangers saw their power-play woes without Adam Fox temporarily disappear when they pulled off an impressive comeback win over the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday.
Two nights later, the Rangers played without Fox and Mika Zibanejad, and their difficulties on special teams reappeared.
After Zibanejad sat out Monday for being late to a team meeting, the Rangers hope his return can help their power play on Tuesday when they host the retooled Vancouver Canucks.
The Rangers are 2-for-17 on the man advantage in seven games since placing Fox on long-term injured reserve due to a left shoulder injury. The defenseman got hurt in the third period of a 4-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Nov. 29.
New York went 2-for-2 on the power play in a 5-4 overtime win against Montreal, marking the fourth time this season the Rangers scored multiple goals on the man advantage.
In a 4-1 home loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Monday, the Rangers went 0-for-4 on power plays despite logging 10 of their 27 shots on goal in those situations. New York also allowed a short-handed and a power-play goal, marking the first time it allowed one of each this season.
“Even since Foxy’s gone down, we’ve had a lot of moving parts there to try and find some consistency in it where we’re comfortable with a group of five,” New York coach Mike Sullivan said of the power-play woes. “So we’ve had a lot of different people and a lot of moving parts.
“Obviously we’d like to settle on something until Foxy gets back in the lineup that gives us more of a semblance of consistency that gives us a chance to build some chemistry.”
Zibanejad, who leads the team with six power-play goals, was a healthy scratch as the Rangers were held to one goal or fewer for the ninth time in 16 home games this season. Sullivan conformed that Zibanejad would return on Tuesday.
“We had a discussion and moved on,” Sullivan said. “He’s an important player for us. He’s a terrific player and he’s a terrific person.”
Vancouver will be playing its second game since trading star defenseman Quinn Hughes to the Minnesota Wild on Friday for forwards Marco Rossi and Liam Ohgren, rookie defenseman Zeev Buium and a 2026 first-round pick.
All three newcomers debuted Sunday afternoon when the Canucks started a five-game road trip with a 2-1 win over the New Jersey Devils.
Jake DeBrusk and Buium scored power-play goals in the opening 6:48, marking the first time since Nov. 17 and fifth time overall this season that Vancouver scored multiple power-play goals. Rossi was on a line with DeBrusk and Brock Boeser after sitting out since Nov. 11 due to a lower-body injury.
Buium also had an assist on DeBrusk’s goal after collecting three goals and 11 assists in 31 games for the Wild. His 16 points are second amongst rookies behind top overall pick Matthew Schaefer, who has 23 points for the New York Islanders.
“He’s got confidence,” Vancouver coach Adam Foote said. “I mean, he’s so young, 20 years old. He saw him walk the line and his swag, you need to have it to be able to run a power play up there like that, and he has it. It was nice to watch.
“I also liked Rossi, like a lot. He plays it the right way. He’s very predictable. Comes up high, does his job. He makes the right play, (if it’s a) pass, he passed, if it’s time to shoot, he’ll shoot.”
The Canucks are 3-8-1 in their past 12 games as they shoot for just their second winning streak of the campaign. Vancouver won three straight from Oct. 16-19 to cap a 4-2-0 start but hasn’t had back-to-back wins any other time.
