The Rangers dropped their second straight 3-2 decision, this one to Dallas on Sunday at MSG. It was basically a lost weekend for New York, who tallied just one out of a possible four points. If Saturday was frustrating because the Rangers outplayed Nashville most of the game, Sunday was worse as both teams exhibited little interest throughout, though New York was the bigger offender of the two squads.
New York went through the motions most of the contest, finally showing some spark late. It was so bad, that coach Alain Vigneault benched the Nash-Stepan-St. Louis line the last seven minutes of the second period. In addition, he sat the Glass-Moore-Stempniak line while also having Matt Hunwick ride the pine. The latter one surprised me a bit as thought Hunwick was decent in first, but we can question why Hunwick was in over John Moore.
Right now, there are way too many passengers or skaters playing below what they should be providing. Martin St. Louis has been hot-and-cold this year, seemingly more cold than hot. His contract status for next year will have to be a major internal debate, especially with the determination to be made on what to do with Mats Zuccarello. It's become too easy to pile on Tanner Glass and to a lesser extent, Lee Stempniak. The horrific numbers with Glass are well known. With Jesper Fast out 2-3 weeks with a sprained right knee, it means that Glass and Stempniak remain in the lineup due to the lack of depth on the team. I am not sure why Oscar Lindberg or Ryan Haggerty or a reinforcement from Hartford isn't getting a call, either for practice squad depth or to get some fresh legs on the bottom six.
The sixth spot has been a revolving door all year. I thought John Moore had played well enough lately to remain a fixture but he too was sat. Moore has a lot more upside, offensively especially, than Hunwick, yet a swap was made yesterday. Dan Boyle, other than a brief surge a while ago, has been horrific. Maybe it is that he is struggling to adapt to AV's system, and we have to hope that is the case and it's fixable. Because if not, then the team is stuck with a $4.5 million defenseman playing like he isn't even worth 45 cents. Signing him in general precluded the team from possibly reaching an accord with Anton Stralman. Paying him that much cash has chewed up a bunch of cap room that likely could have been used better elsewhere.
The positives from yesterday was the play of the second and third line. Kreider-Brassard-Zucc buzzed for a good part of the game, with the main negative the lack of shooting by Brassard and Zuccarello. Each passed when they should have shot, but that's been a compliant much of their times in NY. The Hagelin-Hayes-Miller trio was pretty solid. Their forecheck created the first Rangers goal, but then Hayes had a bad neutral zone turnover, leading to Erik Cole's goal late in the second. If those six play as they did last night coupled with the expected return to form by the top line, then NY should be in decent shape if they can cobble together a solid fourth line. Fast returning will help but at least one more forward is needed.
Cam Talbot was good early, keeping the Rangers in the game. He had no shot on the first goal and in the second, the 'Royal Road' was in full force. Because Talbot had to move from side to side, he left a gap between the pads, which is where he was beaten. Talbot never saw the third goal, but he has to be higher in the crease, cutting down the angle and hopefully taking up more space. Similar was evident Saturday and it seems as if teams are shooting high on him because of it.
A four-game road trip is upcoming. You would expect wins against Toronto and Arizona. Colorado won't be easy but it's a winnable game. The big contest is in a week against the Islanders, but it to mean a lot, NY has to take care of the first three games. Plus, Florida isn't going away, so creating breathing room in the conference takes on added importance.