COLUMBUS, Ohio — J.T. Miller mentioned it unprompted postgame, in the aftermath of the Rangers’ 1-0 loss in overtime to the Blue Jackets when Dylan Garand stole them a point and the offense didn’t do much to help.
The Blueshirts had three power-play opportunities in the third period and had a six-minute window in the final frame to shift the game.
For years, the power play has been the strength of this core — and with Pavel Dorofeyev, who scored 20 goals with the man-advantage last year, now on the unit, it’s expected to be even stronger.
But on this night, the Rangers failed to convert and have now dropped to 20 percent on the season, causing Miller to rue the missed opportunities.
“It sucks the power play can’t come up with one in the third,” the captain said. “You get three cracks in the third. You got to help the team right there. We could’ve used one.”
Echoing Miller, head coach Mike Sullivan admitted, “You’d hope they would score a goal there.”
The Rangers generated just four chances across their three power plays, and they dropped to just 1-for-11 since the start of the Lightning game Tuesday.
That added a sour layer to what was an otherwise productive special teams night, as the Blueshirts killed all three of the Blue Jackets’ power-play opportunities — including one at the end of regulation that turned into a 4-on-3 at the start of overtime.
Their penalty-kill unit ended the night in a tie for second in the league with a 93.5 percent success rate.
But the power play was supposed to be a defined strength again.
“I don’t think we got in as clean,” Miller said. “We didn’t come up with the contested pucks in the corners. I felt like they did. … So it wasn’t our best, and we, to a man, understand that you get three power plays in the third, nothing-nothing on the road, you have to step up there.”
Taylor Raddysh skated 7:43 with the fourth line after getting recalled from AHL Hartford and said it was “obviously frustrating” to get waived at the end of training camp.
