The Rangers’ season opener in Boston didn’t offer much to celebrate, but it did give a first real peek at how Mike Sullivan wants to sort out his special teams. The offense was quiet, the club was shut out, and the result felt flat. Still, the way the bench handled power-play and penalty-kill minutes should be worth tracking as the year unfolds.
Two questions followed the Rangers into Game 1 and they’re not going away anytime soon: how much run will the second power-play group actually get, and who ends up carrying the heavy lifting on the penalty kill?
At the top of the power play, the Rangers went with Adam Fox, Pavel Dorofeyev, Mika Zibanejad, Alexis Lafreniere, and JT Miller. That group is going to soak up most of the time with the extra man.
The real wrinkle is the second unit, which featured Gabe Perreault, Sean Durzi, Will Cuylle, Eeli Tolvanen, and Oliver Bjorkstrand. There’s a balancing act here.
The Rangers want their best players on the ice, but they also need to keep Zibanejad and Miller fresh while giving younger players like Perreault a chance to grow into the role.
The penalty kill looks even more in flux. A lot of the familiar names from recent seasons are no longer there, either because they’re gone or because age is starting to matter.
Chris Kreider and Vincent Trocheck are gone up front. Will Borgen and Carson Soucy are gone on defense.
Sullivan has already said he wants to reduce the special teams burden on Zibanejad and Miller, and use them more in offensive situations so they can preserve their legs.
Last night’s usage pointed to an early pecking order on the kill. Joe Veleno logged 1:30, while Tye Kartye followed at 1:25 among the forwards.
On the back end, Marcus Pettersson and Sean Durzi each led the defense with 1:25. That looks like the primary group for now.
The rest of the PK time was spread thinner, with Braden Schneider and Vlad Gavrikov at 34 seconds apiece on defense and Eeli Tolvanen and Will Cuylle at 18 seconds each up front.
Miller and Zibanejad barely touched the kill, each finishing with less than 20 seconds of PK time. That’s almost certainly going to shift, but the first game suggests they’re behind the main group Sullivan wants to trust. Adam Fox and Alberts Smits didn’t see any penalty-kill time at all, though that will likely change as the season goes on.
The power play was a little more straightforward, even if the distribution still had some interesting texture. On the one opportunity, PP1 logged anywhere from 1:13 for Fox to 1:16 for Dorofeyev and Miller, then up to 1:34 for Lafreniere and 1:46 for Zibanejad.
PP2 handled the rest. For now, that points to a more even setup with the man advantage, though the exact split will depend on the situation.
None of this is set in stone. Special teams usage will keep moving around based on injuries, availability, who drew the penalty, and who was stuck out on the last shift. But after one night, the shape is already becoming clearer: the penalty kill is built around a new look, and the power play appears headed for a more balanced workload.
And the larger issue remains the same. The Rangers didn’t create much offense, staying stuck in the kind of scoring drought that hurt them last season.
Their penalty kill got the job done on its one chance, allowing just two shot attempts and no high-danger looks while generating one attempt of its own. The power play managed two shot attempts, but no high-danger chances.
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