The night was Nov. 27, 2019. Mika Zibanejad had returned to the lineup after being sidelined for 13 games with a neck injury he had incurred a month earlier on a quasi-reverse hit from Patrice Bergeron. It was also the evening that David Quinn, a couple of months into his second season behind the Rangers bench, first assembled a first-unit power play featuring four right-handed shooters.

The group that took the ice in that 3-2 victory over the Hurricanes at the Garden included Artemi Panarin, Zibanejad, Ryan Strome, Tony DeAngelo and Chris Kreider (the lefty). Adam Fox, another righty, replaced DeAngelo on the point a couple of games into the 2020-21 season.

Other than allowing for injuries and other absences, that alignment was essentially inviolate the last two seasons, the Rangers owning one of the most potent power plays in the league (ranked seventh at 23.2 percent) The 2019-20 club went off on a clip of 29.3 percent after Christmas.

The first power-play unit also amassed an inordinately large amount of time on the man-advantage, leaving little for the second group. The power play first five averaged between 2:47 and 2:59 apiece per game. No full-season Ranger on the second unit averaged more than 1:14 per.