Rangers' Peter Laviolette changes up power-play units

GREENBURGH — If you are running the Rangers right now, and you have an idea, any kind of idea — something so crazy it just might work — now is the time to try it.

So with 12 games left in the regular season and his team two points out of the last playoff spot, having lost three straight and having gone 2-5-2 in the last nine games, coach Peter Laviolette changed up his power-play units Friday. He broke up the first unit-second unit hierarchy to create two more balanced man-up groups.

“If something’s not working, it’s not getting results, at some point, you have to do something,’’ Laviolette said. “I think you need to be patient at times, when you put something together, to see how it does. Putting something together for one game, maybe not getting results and changing the next game, I don’t know what [that] does. So you’ve got to give something an opportunity. But if there’s been extended time and we’re not getting results that we want to get, we’ve got to look at something new.’’

So Laviolette put Alexis Lafreniere and Chris Kreider together with Artemi Panarin and Vincent Trocheck, put Mika Zibanejad and J.T. Miller with Will Cuylle and Jonny Brodzinski, and interchanged point men Adam Fox and Zac Jones with both units.

“It puts a little life in the groups,’’ Miller said. “Everybody’s excited to see some new faces. And, you know, sometimes that works. So we’ll see.’’

The Rangers’ power play is goalless in the last five games (0-for-9) and has scored one goal in the last 10 (1-for-24) and two in the last 13 (2-for-33). It did have only one opportunity in each of the last two games, but a timely goal would have helped in either of those one-goal losses, and the power play didn’t produce one.

Breaking up a power-play unit that’s been one of the best in the league for the last four or five years does seems a little like grasping at straws, though. Gerard Gallant, Laviolette’s predecessor, would try it at times when the power play was struggling for a while, but he could never keep it going because it’s not something sustainable long-term. Separating Panarin from Zibanejad and Miller gives each star player less talent around him to work with. And before too long, you have to get back to a setup in which all of your top players get to work with each other.

But Laviolette is right. He has to do something, and this is worth a try. Time is running out — fast — for the Rangers, who close out a four-game homestand Saturday afternoon against Miller’s old team, the Vancouver Canucks, seeking to avoid getting swept on the homestand after losses to Edmonton, Calgary and Toronto. The teams they are battling for the last playoff spot all have games in hand on them, so the desperation level is high.

n  Miller faces old friends

Miller was asked about facing his former team for the first time since the Jan. 31 trade that sent him to New York with a couple of prospects for Filip Chytil, Victor Mancini and a first-round pick.

“Some of my best friends are on that team,’’ Miller said. “We’re [going to have a] good dinner tonight, but once tomorrow comes, it’s going to be a war, and I think we all understand that . . . They need points too. We’re all in the same spot. We need to play well and we need to win the game.’’

Chytil won’t face the Rangers. He has been out with a concussion since March 15.