Rangers need to score on the power play to reach postseason

One-for-22.

That’s how many goals the Rangers have produced on the power play in the last eight games as they continue to be in a dogfight for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

The success rate is 4.5%, which, obviously, is not good enough.

“We had some looks,’’ J.T. Miller said after the Rangers’ 3-1 loss to the Oilers on Sunday night in which they went 0-for-3 on the man advantage. “If we can just get a couple more shots . . . we’ve just got to shoot it when we have the chance to.’’

The Rangers have struggled on the power play for more than eight games, however. In their last 11, they have scored only two goals in 31 power-play chances (6.4%). Going into Monday, the unit was converting 18.6% of its opportunities, which ranked 25th in a league of 32 teams.

Is that bad? It is when measured against their own success during the previous handful of seasons. In the five-season period from 2019-20 to 2023-24, the Rangers’ power play was fourth in the NHL with a success rate of 24.0%. Last season it was third in the league at 26.4%.

The Rangers keep saying the unit is playing fine, creating opportunities, getting looks, but that the shots just aren’t going in right now. And it’s true that power plays run hot and cold over the course of a season, and over time, the good and bad breaks and the hot and cold spurts even out.

The problem is, with only 14 games remaining in the regular season and Montreal, Columbus, Detroit and the Islanders nipping at their heels, the Rangers don’t have time to wait for things to even out. They need to get hot — immediately.

Getting point man Adam Fox, who missed eight games with an upper-body injury, back for the two games over the weekend was a welcome sight. But the Rangers didn’t score on the power play in either of the games.

And while they can’t change too much of what they do at this stage of the season, one thing they need to do, as Miller said, is take more shots.

In their three power-play opportunities on Sunday, the Rangers totaled four shots on goal. That doesn’t include the one-timer by Miller that clanged loudly off the post on their man advantage in the opening minutes — the closest they came to converting.

By hook or by crook, they just have to find a way to get production. When they have a man advantage, the Rangers must take advantage.

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.