One of the biggest battles of the upcoming Penguins/Rangers series will be when New York has the man advantage. At 25.2%, the Rangers finished fourth in the league on the power play this season. The Pens’ PK ended up third at 84.4%, which seems great and a like-for-like strength-on-strength matchup, right?
Well, maybe not so much, since the season-level Pittsburgh penalty kill numbers aren’t reflective of where they are at right now.
Since the trade deadline on March 21st (where the Pens sent away Zach Aston-Reese in a trade), the Pittsburgh PK was only 79.0% down the stretch.