Rangers’ red-hot power play continuing to overwhelm Lightning

The Rangers’ power play has been their calling card all year, but of late, it has reached a new level. 

Going into Game 2 of the conference finals against the Lightning on Friday night, the Rangers had scored on the man-advantage six games in a row, with eight total power-play goals in 18 tries over that span. Couple that with a solid regular-season performance on the power play against Tampa Bay — three goals in as many games — and the Lightning have an issue on their hands in the series. 

“We just gotta know their patterns and what they like to do and having good sticks,” Lightning center and penalty killer Nick Paul said Thursday. “You gotta have good reads. Every time you go out there, they’re dynamic players, they’re out there for a reason. They’re gonna make some great plays. It’s just how you respond to that. 

“If you get seamed, where’s your recovery? Who’s eating the shot? You’re finding the most lethal guy in front. So it’s a lot of reads.” 

Though Tampa Bay managed a relatively harmless penalty kill in its first attempt during Game 1, the Rangers put on a clinic during the power play, leading to Mika Zibanejad’s third-period goal. The Lightning were unable to clear the zone, or to do anything about the cross-ice passes that eventually ended with Zibanejad scoring on a one-timer. 

The Rangers managed to break down the Hurricanes’ elite penalty kill during the second round after struggling through the early part of the series. The Lightning, whose penalty kill finished 11th at 80.56 percent during the regular season, do not have quite the same pedigree. 

“I think with our PK, we read off each other so well and we communicate so well that if they do break us down a little bit, we kinda cover for each other and we don’t give too much up,” Paul said. “Someone’s making a big block in the back end, but I think just reading our patterns, knowing our skill set and kinda limiting their options that they want. We don’t’ want any cross-ice one-timers, we don’t want any shots from the middle. Just keeping it tight. Just kinda giving them the worst opportunity that we could give up.” 

On Wednesday, though, that was just what Tampa Bay failed to do. 

“They’re gonna make plays,” defenseman Zach Bogosian said. “We just have to try to limit those. As far as [Game 1], there’s a couple tough bounces. … They zip it around. Unfortunately it goes in. Those things happen.”