Principles and personnel on the specialty units will be different for the Rangers when the regular season gets underway at the Garden on Thursday against the Avalanche.
In addition to Kevin Shattenkirk, imports Anthony DeAngelo and David Desharnais have roles on the man-advantage units while Kevin Hayes, Jimmy Vesey and Brady Skjei don’t. At the same time, it appears as though Skjei will get a turn on the man-down unit after being entrusted with a penalty-kill sum of 23:31 during his rookie season, while Hayes will retain a key role killing.
Unless something unforeseen develops, the first power-play unit will consist of Shattenkirk, Mats Zuccarello, Chris Kreider, Pavel Buchnevich and Mika Zibanejad while the second will feature DeAngelo, Ryan McDonagh, Rick Nash, J.