The New York Rangers were two different teams this weekend as one team went out, cashed in on their power play chances and played tight defense while the other team came out flat, had a brain cramp for 52 seconds which lead to three goals against and were generally out of sync for much of the game.
This is starting to become the team’s theme thus far in the early part of the season. The team will come out charged for a period, create an array of scoring chances and even put the puck in the net, as could be seen in the team’s victories over the Florida Panthers on opening night and this past Friday night against the Washington Capitals. In other games, they’ll have momentary lapses that will ultimately do them in, as could been seen in both of the team’s losses to the Ottawa Senators.
What’s alarming for the Rangers is their lack of offense, especially after the team added depth in the off-season with Scott Gomez and Chris Drury. For head coach Tom Renney, the problem seems to be finding the right chemistry with his first and second lines, the two lines that are supposed to do the majority of scoring for the Blueshirts.
Last night against the Senators, Gomez played the bulk of the third period with Jaromir Jagr and Marcel Hossa to no avail. Chris Drury actually skated with Petr Prucha and Ryan Callahan for a bit while Brandon Dubinsky got to play with Brendan Shanahan and Martin Straka, something I’m sure that Renney did not envision going into the season.
The one consistency for the Rangers so far this season has been goaltender Henrik Lundqvist. While the team was asleep for most of the first period against the Sens’ last night, Lundqvist stood on his head and made 15 saves, helping to keep it a 0-0 game going into the second period, where the Rangers had a 52-second meltdown. On the season, Lundqvist has allowed 10 goals in five games and sports a .934 save percentage, numbers that should have the Rangers with more wins.
The team will have four days off before facing off against the Atlanta Thrashers in Atlanta. It will be the Rangers’ first trip to Atlanta since sweeping the Thrashers in the first round of last spring’s postseason. Hopefully, the team will not only be able to find its winning ways again, but hopefully find its powerful offense that has been dormant through the first five games of the season.
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