Rangers' Power Play Goes Cold Against McDavid and the Oilers

Three straight wins should have had the Rangers feeling confident. Then they lined up against Edmonton, where the question is never whether the Oilers will generate chances but how many they'll convert. Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Evan Bouchard make every shift feel like a stress test, and New York went into this one knowing it had to be near-perfect to keep up.

McDavid keeps stacking points

Comparing players across eras is a fun argument to have, and it's getting harder to argue against McDavid. He was on pace for 218 points when the Rangers first saw Edmonton this season. That projection has since climbed to 220, and nothing about his game suggests he's easing off. At this point, "generational" is almost too small a word.

The scoring also came early. McDavid opened the scoring once again, and this one was about as gift-wrapped as goals get. Dylan Garand fumbled the puck behind his net, and McDavid had an empty cage to walk it into. Steve Dangle's line on the play has been bouncing around the internet for good reason: "If you're a goaltender … TEND THE GOAL." It's a rough moment for Garand, but it's also the kind of mistake that will keep happening if the Rangers don't clean up their puck management behind the net.

Fox is making his own case

The MSG broadcast spent part of its pregame coverage on Adam Fox, and the praise was earned. He's on pace for 92.3 assists and 102.6 points this season. Those numbers would obliterate the franchise marks of 80 assists and 102 points, both of which Brian Leetch owns. Fox has spent the year proving that his value doesn't depend on flashy highlight totals. He moves the puck, drives the offence from the back end and makes his teammates better in ways that show up in the box score only when you look hard.

Here's the thing about the defenseman conversation: the pace numbers are wild, but the historical bar is even higher. Only one blueliner in NHL history has topped 90 assists in a single season, and that was Bobby Orr. Fox doesn't need to match Orr to be an elite defenseman, but the fact that his current pace puts him in that neighbourhood tells you how much Rangers fans should be paying attention.

Lineup choices and a homecoming

Matt Rempe came out of the lineup in favour of Luke Glendening, giving New York more depth at center against one of the league's best teams. On paper, that's a sensible call. Against a team this good, having an extra centre who can take faceoffs and handle defensive zone responsibility makes sense. Still, this game got physical quickly, and the Jaroslav Chmelar-Noah Laba-Rempe line had been one of the better units over the last couple of games. Keeping Rempe in would have been the more tempting choice, and it's fair to wonder whether it would have given the Rangers more of an edge.

Matthew Robertson stayed in the lineup with Alberts Smits sidelined by an upper-body injury. Smits is week-to-week, so the Rangers will need Robertson to keep providing steady minutes on the back end while the team sorts out its depth. For Robertson, though, the night meant a lot more than a roster spot. It was his first NHL game at Rogers Place, the building where he spent parts of five seasons playing nightly with the Edmonton Oil Kings. His parents were in the building with a front-row view of their son's dream playing out in his hometown rink. That's a moment you hope every player gets to have.

The penalty kill holds, the power play doesn't

New York arrived ranked second in the league on the penalty kill at 89.1 percent, and it held firm against a power play that includes McDavid, Draisaitl and Bouchard. The Rangers were first tested late in the opening period and went 3-for-3 on the evening, pushing their season mark up to 89.7 percent, which now leads the league. Shutting down that power play three times is a serious accomplishment, and it's the kind of discipline that gives a team a real chance to win close games.

The other side of the special teams ledger is the problem. The Rangers came in with a 20.8 percent power play, 19th in the league, and an 0-for-5 night dropped them to 18.9 percent and 24th overall. That's the number that stands out. Against a team as good as Edmonton, you can't expect to get many chances, so any power play opportunity has to be treated like a must-convert. New York had five, converted none, and let the Oilers' top unit stay comfortable on the other end of the ice.

More than one thing went wrong in this game, from the Garand gaffe to the lineup decisions, but the power play is the issue that carries forward. The penalty kill shows the Rangers can defend at a high level. The next step is making their own advantages count, because against a team with this much firepower, a few wasted opportunities can decide the night.