It was just one goal after 14 failed attempts. But still, the Rangers were hoping to take away some confidence from that lone tally on the man-advantage in the whole of their six-game, first-round series against the Canadiens.
It helps the one goal was a big one, scored by Mats Zuccarello in the second period of Game 6 to tie the score 1-1. They went on to win that game 3-1 Saturday night at the Garden and advance to play the Senators in the second round, with Game 1 set for Thursday up in Ottawa.
“It’s a nice power-play goal — about time,” Zuccarello said after the game, his team getting Sunday and Monday off before returning to practice on Tuesday. “That was big for us.”
The Rangers’ power play was hardly dominant during the regular season, finishing 11th in the league with a 20.2 percent success rate. Coach Alain Vigneault switched up his units a little bit when he inserted rookie Pavel Buchnevich for Game 4, putting the skilled 22-year-old Russian right on the top group with Zuccarello, Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad and captain Ryan McDonagh. That moved Derek Stepan down to the second unit with rookie Brady Skjei, Rick Nash, J.T. Miller and Kevin Hayes.
Just like any group of special teams, there were ups and downs during the season, so the 0-for-14 start to the series against Montreal was not an ideal place to begin. But they did end on a high note, and they hope it continues against the Senators.
“We really didn’t get that many opportunities this series, but to get that one was huge,” Skjei said. “Just have to carry that through to the next series, and hopefully we’ll be a little bit better on the power play moving forward here.”
The two days off were welcomed by the players mostly for physical rest, but also to get away from hockey.
“It’s always nice to get a couple days or a day to heal and recuperate and enjoy family sometimes — that’s a big thing,” newcomer Brendan Smith said. “Just to get away sometimes is huge, to recharge that battery.”
The NHL had 18 of the 42 first-round games go to overtime, the highest percentage of any round in playoff history. The Rangers and Canadiens played just two of them.