BOSTON — The Rangers’ power play had generally been a strength. But it killed them in their 3-2 overtime loss to the Bruins on Friday afternoon.
The man advantage went 0-for-6, which included 62 seconds of 5-on-3 time late in the second period and a four-minute power play late in the third period. The top unit does look a little different since Mika Zibanejad returned for Wednesday night’s 3-2 win over the Hurricanes, with net-front Chris Kreider now as the only lefty-shot.
“That does change [things], and we haven’t had a chance to practice since he’s been back,” coach David Quinn said. “I think once we get a chance to have a few practices, we’ll have more synergy and more continuity on both units.”
Moving from the first unit to second was Kaapo Kakko, with the 18-year-old going through an ugly rookie slump. That bumped Brendan Lemieux off the second group on Wednesday, but he was back in his net-front role Friday for all but one power play, when he was replaced by Filip Chytil.
Brendan Lemieux (l.) gets into it with Zdeno Chara.Getty Images“We have to execute on our power play. It wasn’t good enough,” Lemieux said. “This league has become a special teams league. You can win or lose on your special teams.”
Even after the stinker, the Rangers were still ranked 12th in the league on the power play, scoring on 19.3 percent of their chances.
Artemi Panarin has already had the best November in Rangers history, and there is still Saturday’s matinee against the Devils in Newark before it closes.
The terrific winger picked up another assist Friday and now has 23 points in the month, the most during November in franchise history. He is also the first Rangers to have 23 points or more in any month since Jaromir Jagr tallied 26 points in March of 2006.
Panarin is leading the team with 12 goals, 21 assists and 33 points, and has at least one point in 16 of the past 17 games, and 20 of the team’s first 24 games.
Goalie Henrik Lundqvist stopped 24 shots in his 873rd career regular-season appearance with the Rangers, tying Tony Esposito (Blackhawks) for the second-most regular-season appearances by a goaltender with one franchise.
Defensemen Jacob Trouba and Tony DeAngelo both recorded an assist, giving the Rangers the highest-scoring backend in the league — 21 goals and 70 points combined. That also includes Brendan Smith (two goals, three assists), who plays forward at even-strength.
