The Rangers, off a pair of poor losses, face Los Angeles at home tonight and head on the road tomorrow to face Boston. The Kings have thrived since moving from Darryl Sutter to John Stevens as coach, taking advantage of a more uptempo style to lead the Pacific Division. Boston got off to a slow start, but they have righted the ship, going 7-3 in their last 10 games and sit third in the Atlantic. For New York, will we see the team that looked so good against the Devils or the one that got off to slow start versus Washington and were no-shows facing Dallas and Ottawa?
For these two games, New York will likely once again be without Mika Zibanejad. As the wam canceled practice yesterday and Zib has yet to go through a full practice with the squad, the expectation is he will not play as team or AV protocol is for the player coming back from injury to have a full practice before returning to game action. Without Zib, the power play has gone in the tank and the play of the first line in terms of possession and quality offensive zone changes has declined.
After going 0-for-1 on the man-advantage against Ottawa, the Rangers now are 3-for-34 (8.8 percent) in 13 games since Nov. 11. Some regression was expected from the level the team was at, but since Zibanejad was injured on Nov. 24 against the Red Wings, the PP has fallen off a cliff
As Larry Brooks pointed out, in the seven games that preceded this power-play outage, and with Zibanejad in the lineup, the Rangers had gone 9-for-23 (39.1 percent). Not so coincidentally, they also had a 6-1-0 record during that stretch and had started to put their season on stable ground. What that evidences is that team and PP substantially misses Zib, not just for his offensive talent but the way his shot from the left dot balanced out the remainder of the first unit and the trickle down impact on the second five.
That said, if you believe Brooks and many others on this site, as of December 15, the Rangers have no chance at contending this year and should start the team down right now. Brooks wrote:
it is incumbent upon (GM Jeff) Gorton to cash in on the expiring assets under his control and accelerate the team’s remodeling, whether it costs ownership a couple of playoff dates or not.
The Rangers need to add more of an edge and to become a team that wins far more one-on-one battles and spends much more time in the offensive zone and much less backing into its own end. This year’s club lacks both bark and bite. We’re in Vanilla-land here with a team that has been kept afloat since the end of October by superior goaltending from Henrik Lundqvist and Ondrej Pavelec, who have combined for a .929 save percentage and 2.38 goals-against average.
And though the deadline does not strike until Feb. 26, there is nothing wrong with jumping the market if the price is right for pending free-agent wingers Rick Nash and Michael Grabner, despite their value to the Rangers. Beyond that, management is coming up on uncomfortable moments of truth regarding Ryan McDonagh and Mats Zuccarello, both of whom are eligible to hit free agency in 2019.
All of this is round already tread upon. My view on this is well-known as it seems like every few weeks - sometimes days -I cover it. I understand Brooks’ and everyone else’s view. Right now, I am not there. Now that shouldn’t preclude Gorton from exploring the market place to see what deals could be made if/when he does decide to pull the plug. But dealing those assets at this moment to me seems early.
Maybe what we saw during the hot streak was fools gold. But once Zib comes back, if the offense continues to be uneven, the same with the overall play, then managing assets will take priority. In addition, for all the concerns up front, to me, the bigger concern has been the defense, an area that has been much more deficient that we expected.
Have you ever seen an inverted payroll pyramid such as the one the Rangers are displaying on their defense? As in: First pair of McDonagh and Nick Holden ($1.65 million), total of $6.35 million; Second pair of Brady Skjei ($925,000) and Kevin Shattenkirk ($6.65 million), total of $7.575 million; Third pair of Marc Staal ($4.7 million) and Brendan Smith ($4.35 million), total of $10.05 million.
Through 31 games, I and the Rangers were way off on Brendan Smith. The snarl and grit and fine play he displayed after he came to New York and in the playoffs has been nowhere to be scene this season. Maybe he pulled the wool over all of our eyes or the adverse scouting reports we received on Smith after the deal were more accurate than those that praised the acquisition. If the downward slide was caused because of poor conditions and weight management earlier this season, what’s the main excuse now.
If Smith was the only culprit, that would be half-bad, but he is far from the main or worst offender. McDonagh’s play has fallen off dramatically. The me, that’s the bigger surprise. I think we all felt moving from Dan Girardi to either Kevin Shattenkirk or Smith would cause McD’s play to move to another level. That has happened, but unfortunately, it’s gone in the wrong direction. Maybe the strained ab isn’t fully healed and impacted him early in the season to now, but he has maybe been the fourth or fifth d-man on the squad, which is a scary proposition.
Shattenkirk, after a very slow start, has picked up his play offensively but defensively, he still is a major work in progress. We may not have liked what Capitals’ coach Barry Trotz said, but it looks more on- than off-point. His addition was expected to boost the blue line, which has happened offensively, but not so much defensively. I still like the acquisition but the overall impact has been blunted by his own zone issues. Brooks gets into that from a team perspective today:
From Ulf Samuelsson to Jeff Beukeboom to Lindy Ruff, the identity of the assistant coach in charge of defense doesn’t seem to have the slightest effect on the blue line’s propensity for over-pursuit of the puck at the expense of protecting the front of the net. For better or worse, this must be by design of head coach Alain Vigneault.
When AV is no longer in NY, that deficiency along with an inability to adjust will be his epitaph. When three coaches are brought in and each of them fail to remediate a known issue, the lens has to to turn to the system, which stems from the coach. Just stay in the damn slot and don’t chase behind the net or if not, get replaced by your D-counterpart or the forward. But why chase? Stay at home and let your defensive partner catch up, unless he goes all the way around the net and then maybe adjust. Yet the same mistake keeps happening, which has to be system and not players or the assistant coaches.
The Rangers are clearly at a cross-roads again. The weekend may not make the team but it sure could really break them. Stay tuned, all may be known sooner rather than later.
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