The Rangers’ power play still isn’t fixed — what needs to change

For years, it was their undisputed strength. The layer of their team that could transcend offseasons and coaching changes. The Rangers — under Gerard Gallant, under Peter Laviolette, even under David Quinn — had a defined core, and most of that defined core shaped their power-play unit. The two became synonymous.

The Rangers finished with the NHL’s seventh-best power play or better in four of the five seasons prior to last season, when their special teams cratered in Year 2 of Laviolette, ending as the fifth-worst unit (17.6 percent) in the league despite the same pieces mostly remaining intact.

That stunning about-face has carried over into the first season of the Mike Sullivan era, too. They awoke Wednesday morning ranked 28th in power-play percentage (14.3) and 24th in expected goals for (5.5) through 11 games, according to MoneyPuck. And if there’s an issue Sullivan and his staff need to solve outside of just simply winning more to improve their brutal 4-5-2 record, the Rangers’ power play remains near the top of the list.

“We can still look for the plays that are there when they’re there,” Sullivan said last week after a Rangers practice, “but I think we can have a little bit more of a shooting mentality — but it goes hand in hand with having a net-front and just making sure that we’re making the goalie’s sightlines difficult. Even if they make the save, the next save might be really difficult to make.