The debate about the Rangers’ power-play units began long before Alexis Lafreniere entered the picture.
But a few times every season, one of the most formidable aspects of the Blueshirts’ game will hit a stretch or produce a run of statistics that beg the question of whether there should be more balance among the player groups and ice-time distribution.
The Rangers entered Thursday night’s 3-2 win over the Sharks at Madison Square Garden having scored five power-play goals in their last 23 chances over their last eight games.
Alexis Lafreniere skates with the puck during the Rangers’ win over the Ducks earlier in the season.
Three of those were produced by PP1, but one came from PP2 and the most recent came with Lafreniere on with the first group in place of Mika Zibanejad.
The Rangers did not score a power play goal in the win over San Jose.
Before Thursday’s win, the Rangers ranked sixth in the NHL in power-play percentage at 26.2.
Perhaps more of Lafreniere joining Artemi Panarin, Vincent Trocheck, Chris Kreider and Adam Fox is in store because the second unit hardly ever sees the ice.
Vincent Trocheck (center) and his teammates try and skate away with the puck from being defended by Alex Tuch in the first period of the Rangers’ home loss to the Sabres.
Still, for someone like Zac Jones, who is getting a legit run quarterbacking PP2 alongside Lafreniere, Reilly Smith, Filip Chytil and Kaapo Kakko, the last four games have seen the 24-year-old get some of his most substantial man-advantage time since 2022-23.
“It’s been good. I think he does a good job out there,” head coach Peter Laviolette said of Jones on Thursday morning. “He skates well, he moves the puck well. He sees the ice well. There’s a lot of things he does well. He doesn’t get a lot of time, and so I think the more time you get on the ice, probably the more comfortable you get with that. There will be no change with that right now.”
Zac Jones skates with the puck against left wing Eetu Liukas during the third period of a preseason game against the Islanders.
Suiting up in his fifth straight game Thursday, Jones is averaging more ice than he has since his April 2021 NHL debut.
On the power play, Jones has recorded one shot on goal, two shot attempts and two takeaways.
Victor Mancini was assigned to AHL Hartford on Wednesday, while Chad Ruhwedel was subsequently recalled from the Wolf Pack.
Ruhwedel joined the Rangers on Thursday for morning skate.
“I thought he came in and had a good training camp, played for us, none of that changes,” Laviolette said of Mancini. “He and Zac going in and out of the lineup, just evaluating games. Not to say one was bad and one was good. Zac came in and I thought he played real well and for that reason, he stayed in. So it gets to a point where Zac’s been in the lineup for a few games now.
“We as an organization just don’t see the benefit of a young player, a first-year player, a second-year player, just sitting here and not playing. I think that there is value to practicing at the NHL level and going out every day and practicing with NHL players — the speed, the pace of practice and how that goes.
“So that’s OK for a little bit. But I think developing inside of game situations is also really beneficial. A chance for him to go to Hartford and really take on some minutes and continue to develop. He did a real good job, we were real happy with him.”
