If there's any player on the New York Rangers roster who most NHL fans have gotten to know more than they wanted to, it's defenseman Jacob Trouba.

Trouba has earned a reputation for delivering controversial hits with various levels of severity to opposing players.

We saw it from him again in Game 3 when he delivered a chicken-wing elbow to the head of Florida Panthers forward Evan Rodrigues.

That hit earned him a $5,000 fine from NHL Department of Player Safety and more exasperation from fans and others around the league that he evaded a suspension yet again.

The 30-year-old also didn't really have much of an explanation for it afterward.

Trouba toes, and often crosses, the line regarding his physical play. For all the positive things he brings as Rangers captain and playing the way he does, taking penalties and royally ticking off opponents can galvanize their efforts to try to beat them. Putting your foes on the power play and motivating them to beat you even more aren't helpful.

But as dangerous as his hits have been in the past and the power plays allowed could hurt the Rangers, the thing that's been hurting them even more is the way Trouba has played the rest of the time he's on the ice.

Among the six defensemen the Rangers have iced in the postseason at 5-on-5, Trouba is third in minutes played behind K'Andre Miller and Adam Fox but has been on the ice for the most shot attempts against (via Natural Stat Trick), second-most scoring chances against and on the ice for the second-most high danger scoring chances against and high danger goals against.

The playoffs are a small sample size, but the scope and meaning of the games enhance anything that's done extremely well or very poorly. One theory some might throw out to why Trouba is struggling is because his teammates are not helping out as well. Fortunately, there are stats for that, too.

Trouba's two most common defense partners (via Natural Stat Trick) are Miller and Erik Gustafsson.

When it comes to having the better percentage of shot attempts at 5-on-5, both are far better off without Trouba than with him. When it comes to shot quality for (also known as expected goals), Gustafsson and Trouba have done well (nearly 53 percent) while with Miller it wasn't as good (45.6 percent). Gustafsson and Trouba have each been worse off without each other (Trouba's xGF% is 40.6, Gustafsson's is nearly 44 percent), but Miller's numbers have improved to 48.8 percent.

Trouba and Gustafsson have been complementary to each other. Trouba is physical and nasty while Gustafsson is a puck possessor, passer and shot generator. But this is about as much as head coach Peter Laviolette can do to try managing the defense while not playing Miller and Fox into the ground.

As good as Trouba has been about blocking shots (team-leading 47 at 5-on-5) and throwing the body (team-leading 44 hits at 5-on-5), and for as much as his teammates can feed off of both of those abilities, the classic thing about hits is that if you're leading in that category, it means you don't have the puck.

What's more, the way the Panthers play makes it easier for them to expose Trouba's weaknesses. Sure, they're willing to engage with him physically and play the questionable physical game themselves, but they're also a team that forechecks opponents all over the ice and doing that to Trouba when he's out there can lead to trouble for the Rangers.

Although the Rangers have a 2-1 lead in the series, Trouba has put the spotlight back on himself again. New York has been able to get by and win games despite the distraction provided by the hits, but while he's taking penalties and giving the Panthers chances on the power play, Florida might want to keep him on the ice more often because with the way the game has unfolded around him.

The Rangers haven't played as well as they could with Trouba out there, but they're not going to do anything drastic like bench their captain.

But they could stand to see him playing better hockey if they're going to win their first Stanley Cup since 1994.