Rangers could see more of Alexis Lafreniere in power plays first line in near future
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.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.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.”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 Wo...