Tortorella making changes for Game 3

Rangers coach John Tortorella said a team's power play can, at times, be a microcosm of its offensive performance as a whole. If so, it only makes sense that after tweaking line combinations and making personnel substitutions, he is contemplating changes on special teams, too.

"It's not working," Tortorella said after practice Saturday. "We're going to try some different things, maybe some different personnel."

Trailing the Washington Capitals 2-0 in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinal series that shifts to the Garden Sunday for Game 3, the Rangers have scored only one goal in the first two games. Friday night, they were shut out by 23-year-old goaltender Michal Neuvirth in his second NHL playoff start.

Consistent with the Rangers' offensive ineptitude, the power-play unit has been inefficient. The Rangers were 0-for-4 with the man-advantage in the first two games.

"We're struggling there. We haven't had many, but even the two we've had in each game, it can create momentum or hurt you in another way," Tortorella said. "It's not so much scoring a goal or not, it's how it's presented, how you get your work done there. And I think that's hurt us a bit momentum-wise."

What needs to change?

"A lot," veteran defenseman Bryan McCabe said. "We need to get some shots, get set up. I don't even think we really had a set-up last game. It's not the end of the world. We've only had four reps, we haven't had 30. It'll come here."

Granted, the sample size has been small, but the Blueshirts enter Sunday's game in a 1-for-31 rut on the power play during the last 11 games.

That statistic is not lost on McCabe, whose power-play experience was a selling point when the Rangers acquired him from Florida before the trade deadline.

As one of the first unit's two point men, he knows he must play a significant role in generating opportunities.

"We've got to get shots through. First key is getting set up, getting the puck back, then obviously getting the pucks to the net," McCabe said. "We've got to test this guy, create some traffic and get the puck on net. That's my job."