FanNation - The Republic of Sport

By Sarah Kwak, SI.com

A lot has been said about the Rangers' power play, namely how bad its been. During the regular season, despite having the seventh most PP opportunities, their 16.5 percent success rate landed them in the bottom third in the league. And it hasn't been impressive thus far in the postseason (six opportunities, no goals). But what has been impressive in the Rangers' two wins of this series has been their play on the other side of that coin -- their penalty kill. Friday night in Game 2, New Jersey had five opportunities with the man-advantage in the 2-1 New York win. And how many shots did the Devils put on Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist in those 10 minutes? Four.

Sure, some of it has to do with the Devils' equally bad -- if not worse -- power play. There were seven teams with lower percentages in the regular season; New Jersey was one of them. But a lot has to do with the Rangers' penalty kill, which was ranked sixth in the league, and Chris Drury, Dan Girardi, Mike Rozsival and Fedor Tyutin, The Penalty Killers.

When Rangers defenseman Christian Backman cross-checked his stick into Zach Parise's mouth ("He went to see the dentist," Devils head coach Brent Sutter said after the game when asked how Parise was doing), he drew a double-minor high-sticking penalty about halfway into the second period. Should've been a turning point in the game. And it was -- for the Rangers. 

During that stretch, The Penalty Killers stepped up, and Drury, in particular, took two long shifts with the man-down, during which New Jersey put up -- oh yeah, that's right -- nothing. 

"It integrates into the rest of the play," Rangers coach Tom Renney says. "Your guys feel inspired by that because your killers are out there doing what they're supposed to do and doing a good job of it. It does have an influence over the rest of our game."

After the Rangers killed that power play, they went on a shooting spree, putting up 10 shots to the Devils' 2 before Jaromir Jagr finally put one past New Jersey goalie Martin Brodeur 4:26 into the third period. Taking the puck back behind the net with a Devil hot on his trail, Jagr rounded the corner, made a hard stop and found the inches -- maybe even centimeters -- of space between the bar and Brodeur. (I'm reminded of The Mighty Ducks, arguably the best hockey film ever made. "Just a quarter of an inch, Charlie. A quarter of an inch!") Sometimes, a quarter of an inch is all it takes. And while everyone was still wondering how exactly Jagr's shot slipped through so small a space, Sean Avery made it a quick 2-0 with a rebound shot that would become the game-winner just 23 seconds later. 

If the third period was all about shots -- New York posted 17, four more than they had taken in the first 40 minutes, and the Devils, in a last-ditch effort, took eight in the game's final 10 minutes -- the second was all about shoves. Fifteen penalties between them in the second period alone ("I think we spent more time fighting than playing hockey," said Lundqvist. "Great for me. I had time to relax."). That set up some time (about six minutes) for the Killers to go to work. Each of the four aforementioned killers spent at least 4:00 of ice time on the PK Friday night. And leading them with 5:36 in short-handed time was Drury, who, along with the rest of the PK unit, has been putting on a pretty good show.

It's Chris Drury and The Penalty Killers, coming to Madison Square Garden Sunday night.

Future tour dates TBA.