As the Rangers soared to the top of the Eastern Conference standings in the season’s opening weeks, they became the improbable darlings of the NHL. Before the season, Sports Illustrated pegged the Blueshirts to finish last among all 30 NHL clubs, but they have instead been at or near the front of the pack the whole way.

Helping matters, the Rangers have faced precious little adversity and enjoyed unusual good fortune during this fantasy land of a season. The knee injury that kept talented forward Martin Rucinsky out of the lineup for about a month in the fall paved the way for the emergence of rookie Petr Prucha, who has been one of the Blueshirts’ most reliable scorers. Prucha went down with a knee sprain of his own about a week before the Olympic break, meaning his three weeks of recovery time came while the Rangers were out of action.

Prucha returned to the lineup on Sunday night and contributed an assist against Atlanta, but his presence was not enough. The Blueshirts’ 3-2 shootout loss extended their season-worst losing streak to five games and sent the Madison Square Garden crowd home in a collective panic. Could the wheels be falling off the wagon yet again?

Not to worry. Fourteen points ahead of ninth-place Atlanta with a game in hand and only 18 games remaining, it is a foregone conclusion that the Rangers will reach the playoffs.

It’s also important to put this skid in proper context. The Rangers are coming off an Olympic break during which their most crucial players competed through the medal round. It was eight games in 12 nights for goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, defensemen Fedor Tyutin and Darius Kasparaitis, and forwards Jaromir Jagr, Martin Straka, and Rucinsky.

A post-Olympic hangover is certainly a reasonable explanation for the current slide, though the players have not used it as an excuse.And considering the fact that they have allowed just 11 goals in the five losses (a thoroughly acceptable 2.2 goals-against average), it’s clear the team’s responsibilities to the defensive zone have not been shirked.

The problem, instead, is a failure to generate offense. In the five losses, the Rangers have scored but six goals, meaning even the most superhuman performances by Lundqvist and backup Kevin Weekes wouldn’t be enough to restore proper order on Broadway. It’s up to head coach Tom Renney to find a way to get his team to generate more offense without sacrificing the still-formidable defense, and the first place to look is the failing power play.

The Rangers, just 2-for-27 on the power play in the five losses, have clearly not been generating high-quality scoring chances while playing with the man advantage. The problem has as much to do with the players’ formation as it does with the performance of the skaters.

The team lacks right-handed shooters – only Prucha can be considered a legitimate scoring threat, with grinding forwards Jason Ward and Colton Orr and defenseman Michal Rozsival best used at even-strength or on the penalty kill – so Renney must devise set plays and formations to ensure that his team’s best left-handed shooters (and Prucha) are in shooting position when receiving passes.

As the Carolina Hurricanes demonstrated so clearly in last Monday’s win over the Rangers, neutralizing Jagr has become the key to stopping this team, and it’s up to Renney to figure out ways to better distribute scoring opportunities among Jagr’s talented supporting cast.

For much of the season, Jagr has run the power play from the right wing boards, and with Prucha in the lineup, the formation has worked to near perfection. Jagr’s deft feeds across to the left wing to the opportunistic Prucha – whose righthanded shot enables him to face Jagr while approaching the net – are consistently turned into goals. With Prucha back in the lineup, he and Jagr can again form a deadly 1-2 combination.

But if Prucha is not on the ice for the power play, Renney should consider moving Jagr to the left-wing boards so that left-shooting snipers Petr Sykora and Rucinsky can be the beneficiaries of his exceptional playmaking.

There’s also the power play point, where Fedor Tyutin and new acquisition Sandis Ozolinsh each have excellent left-handed shots. Tyutin has emerged as the Blueshirts’ most complete defenseman, while Ozolinsh has been one of the NHL’s most prolific offensive defensemen for most of the past decade.

In order to get the most out of Tyutin and/or Ozolinsh, one of them must be set up on the right side. In Toronto, Tomas Kaberle is the set-up man for Bryan McCabe’s booming shot; both players shoot from the left side, but by setting the unit up so that McCabe’s shot is featured, he has been able to tally 18 goals in 54 games. The same is true in Detroit, where Nicklas Lidstrom’s smooth feeds across to the right point have enabled Mathieu Schneider to score 20 goals in 62 games.

That Tyutin’s five goals is tops among Rangers blueliners says more about the team’s power play strategy than it does about his formidable shot. If Renney wants his team to be more successful with the man advantage, it’s crucial that Tyutin and Ozolinsh play a more active role on the power play.

Currently ranked 16th in the league with a 17.8% success rate, the Rangers’ power play has not been the reason for the team’s success. But if Renney’s club is going to do some damage in the postseason – and perhaps even compete for the Stanley Cup – it will need to improve. Jagr gets the lion’s share of the attention – and deservedly so, considering he leads the NHL in scoring – but the Rangers have no shortage of talent.

That the Blueshirts’ work ethic has remained at a high level is a great sign as the playoffs approach. And of all the problems to have, their struggling power play is no cause for panic. It seems Renney simply needs to rearrange the pieces on the chessboard. Once he does, the Blueshirts’ skid will become a distant memory, and the Garden fans will be filled with optimism once again.

Mr. Greenstein is the editor in chief of InsideHockey.com.