The Rangers are at a cross-roads. Their play lately has left much to be desired, capped with a virtual n-show Saturday against the Canadiens. Out-hit and out-hustled. the Rangers had their time and space through all three zones, especially the neutral one, limited and taken away by Montreal.
Montreal bulked up at the deadline, acquiring Steve Ott, Dwight King and Andreas Martinsen, opting for size over skill. That rebuilt fourth line helped pin New York in all night while Jordie Benn, another deadline acquisition by GM Marc Bergervin, was solid as well. The Canadiens' plan appears to be use their skill forwards, who were without Alexander Radulov against New York, to generate the attack, have the bottom-six hammer opponents to wear them down and create chances and use Carey Price to stone any good chance. So far it's working.
Remember all the talk on how the Rangers (41-22-2) should play for the fourth seed, avoiding the Metro Division gauntlet, to play the winner of the Atlantic Division, which looks like it will be Montreal? How is that looking right now? The Canadiens (37-21-8) are on a roll, and we saw last night, may be built to handle the attrition game that is known as the playoffs. Be careful what you wish for, you just may get it.
Home ice has become a house of horrors for the Rangers, who play better on the road. Saturday was the team's fourth straight loss at home (0-3-1), the last three of which came in regulation to Columbus, Washington and Montreal by an aggregate 15-6 margin. In all four contests, the execution and especially the effort were lacking and not good enough by far to win. In general, the offense has gone south, as team's have adapted to the Rangers speed, glitz and flash style, which isn't supported by hard work and grinding. This has to be somewhat on AV and the coaching staff, as they now have to adjust to what team's are doing to them, as not all of the issues can be attributed to the inability to make the 10-foot pass, as AV said after the game.
On the road, the team appears to play a much simpler game, while at home, they lose that element and go for the highlight play. The Rangers have been limited to two goals or fewer eight times in their last nine contests, going 4-4-1 while being outscored 25-17. That first quarter in which New York seemed to score at will is long gone, replaced by a slog fest and inability to score.
All the right quotes were said after the game:
“Right now we’ve got quite a few guys that are fighting it, a couple guys’ games are not very good,… coach Alain Vigneault said. “But that’s still not a reason to execute at the level we did tonight, and it’s still not a reason to lose the number of 1-on-1 battles that we lost tonight.“So it has to be a reality check here.…
“We’ve been playing right into our opponents’ game plan,… Rick Nash told The Post. “We’re skating into traffic, we’re turning the puck over and now we’re the ones giving up the two-on-ones and breakaways instead of creating them.“It’s like we have a half-forecheck. We’re chasing. We’re doing a lot circling. We’re not playing in straight lines and we’re not finishing a lot of checks. We can’t get the puck. And we do get it in, it’s out right away.…
“Everything had been going pretty well for us, but now we’re in a situation where the leadership has to step up and set the example.
“We’ve got to go out and play. It’s on us.…
“When we’re on the road, we stress playing a simple game, and we’ve been successful at it. I almost hate saying it, it’s such an old cliché, but it’s about getting the puck deep, going to get it with a hard forecheck and getting the puck back to our defense.
“When you see all the games from around the league, you see how many goals are scored from around the net on plays that begin with shots from the point. We have to get that mentality.…
“We made it hard on ourselves.…
“We were slow all over the ice, getting beat to pucks and letting them have all the plays they wanted,… Ryan McDonagh said. “It was an easy game for them. We didn’t make it hard on them.…
If you know what the problem is, then fix it. I get that michael Grabner has missed the last two games, as has Jesper Fast, removing two key elements from the lineup. But in sports, it's next man up always. Brandon Pirri and Matt Puempel are getting chances, but doing little with it. So switch it up again. With the cap no longer a real concern, especially seeing all the remaining space available, call up Marek Hirvik and place him on the fourth line. At least you will get an honest effort. I am not about to go as far as saying call up Tanner Glass, but I see why some have mentioned it. In addition, call up Nicklas Jensen and go with a fourth line of Hrivik, Jensen and Oscar Lindberg to try and create chances and improve the forecheck.
On the blue line, Dan Girardi and Kevin Klein are both still out, which regardless what you say about their performance, removes some toughness. Brendan Smith is fitting in fine, so keep him with McDonagh. Adam Clendening and Brady Skeji both had lousy games, though Skjei gets a mild pass as he was getting over a stomach virus. The Nick Holden-Marc Staal duo has to go, as they struggled again. Play Skjei with Staal, which results in Skjei going to the right side. Similarly, pair Holden with Clendening, which allows Holden to go back to his left or natural side. Something has to be done to try and restart this team. Maybe these moves will help.
Update: Glass and Steven Kampfer were called up today. Hopefully, when everyone is back, Jimmy Vesey and Pavel Buchnevich don't sit for Glass. Look for Glass to play with Lindberg. I would have called up Hrivik as well and played him with Glass and Lindberg. Kampfer likely replaces Clendening. However, I would sit Staal or Holden a game, as each have struggled worse than Clendening.