Rangers' win over Chicago exposed shortcomings

Rangers center Mika Zibanejad didn’t exactly hang his head, but his eyes looked down as he spoke, and his tone was that of a humbled man. He wasn’t proud of the way his team had just beaten last-place Chicago, 4-3, on Friday night at the United Center, winning in overtime after blowing a 3-1 lead with less than seven minutes to go in regulation.

“You want the performance to be good. And we know we have to play better,’’ said Zibanejad, who scored at 2:37 of overtime. “The longer we get through the season, [the more] we want to build and we want to feel good about our game. But right now, it’s two points. We’re relieved that we got the win.’’

The Rangers, coming off big victories over Colorado and Tampa Bay in their first two games out of the All-Star break, earned their fourth straight win. But they did it against a 14-35-3 Chicago team that had lost five in a row and hadn’t won since an overtime decision over the Islanders on Jan. 19. For the Rangers, winning this game should not have been that difficult.

“We got two points, and we’re in the business of winning,’’ coach Peter Laviolette said. “So we’ll take the points and go home . . . It was obviously not a clean night for us. We were consistently not where we needed to be.’’

There was so much the Rangers didn’t do well Friday, but the most noticeable shortcoming was the failure of their power play, which went 0-for-3 against a Chicago team whose 76.7% success rate on the penalty kill entering the game was seventh-worst in the league.

The Rangers’ power play, which had been the best or second-best in the league, has failed to score on its last 14 attempts covering six games. Power plays typically run hot and cold over the course of a season, but this is an extended cold stretch. The Rangers’ last power-play goal came on Jan. 21 when they went 2-for-4 in a 5-2 victory over lowly Anaheim.

Overall, their struggles have dropped them to fifth in the league with a 26.1% success rate on the power play.

“I think it’s one where we’re overthinking,’’ Zibanejad said when asked to explain what’s happening with the man advantage. “We talk about playing fast, but I think we’re just trying to find something, trying to overdo it, trying to overcompensate for what’s going on right now. We talk about simplifying, and that’s what we have to keep harping on and keep getting better at.’’

The Rangers had a total of five shots on goal in their three power plays against Chicago, all of them coming from the second unit. That’s probably why, on the third power play, Laviolette shook things up by starting out with the second unit rather than the first. That didn’t work either.

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.