New York continue their nine-game homestand Tuesday against an equally struggling Predators squad, who have lost five in a row. The fanbase, if that hadn't already, is starting to turn on this Rangers team. The early-season issues chipped away at the mindset of the Blueshirt faithful. The hit streak shortly thereafter was able to restore some of the luster, but the win one, lose one streak of 10 straight blunted a good part of the whatever positivity we were able to generate. Saturday's and Sunday's losses may have sent all of us to a new low.
The mistakes are coming from all angles. If it's not the inability to score, it's the problems with making a tape-to-tape pass. If they do score, it's offset by defensive lapses and turnovers in center ice. If those aspects works, then it's the most damning issues of all - the lack of heart, fire, passion and effort.
You have seen me write that the optimal is talent plus effort. Talent without maximum effort can win if you a play a lesser talented squad with similar effort. But a squad with lesser talent can win as long as the effort is there. In the past, save for rare occasions, the effort was there. While we might have questioned the overall talent level, you knew that nightly, the Rangers would bring their A-effort, making up for in many cases the warts offensively. This year, we have differing views as to the true talent level on this squad, with many believing that the names on the back of the jersey along with their reputation doesn't meet the actual overall talent level (including Stepan, Callahan, Brassard, Girardi, Del Zotto etc.). Regardless if that is the case - though to date, it looks to be true - the bigger problem is the lack of effort. Effort should be the easiest thing for an athlete to have. They should realize that the name of the front of the jersey is more important than the one on the back. To date, for whatever reason, that has not been the case.
The Rangers especially lately have been outworked, outhustled, outphysicaled (I know it’s not a word, just go with it) and outplayed. Larry Brooks echoes a thought many of us had that much of these issues stem from the team's inability to replace what they lost when Brandon Prust signed with Montreal. At the time, most of us felt that four years and $10 million were too much to give Prust. Little did we know how wrong that view us. I had wanted Prust signed during the year for $1.75 million per. When he went to free agency, we felt three years at $2 maybe $2.2 per was doable, but the four and 10 was above what was reasonable. That failure to replace the heart and passion that Prust brought; his ability to go against heavyweights and hold his own and not let the Rangers be pushed aside is an intangible the team obviously can't do without.
You can say the core needs to be better, which is true. You can say that Henrik Lundqvist has to be better overall, but especially at even-strength, where his .919 save percentage is 23rd in the league, true. You can say that the players need to be accountable, which has not been the case for much of the year, which was evidenced by Richards etc, finally showing some anger the other night after the debacle against Washington. All of those are true, but unless someone or the whole team is willing to step to prevent the liberties that have occurred way too often from repeating, all the talent in the world will mean nothing because they will be pushed around.
The Rangers took a small step in the right direction to address the physical imbalance by promoting Aaron Asham from Hartford on Monday. He has shown in the past the willingness to mix it up and play a physical game. Asham is slated to skate on a line with Derek Dorsett, who is back from missing three games with his sprained wrist, and Dominic Moore. I could see Brian Boyle moving down to this line to create a better fourth checking line, with Moore then moving up to play with Carl Hagelin and Mats Zuccarello now that Taylor Pyatt and Benoit Pouliot, who finally played his way off the active lineup, are scratched tonight. The Kreider-Stepan-Nash trio remain together while the second line is now Richards-Brassard-Callahan, though that too could be tweaked as the game goes on.
The worst secret in the world - that Marc Staal has another concussion - was confirmed Tuesday. The original spin of a neck injury with "symptoms" was viewed by almost all of us as one sounding great on paper with no semblance of fact. The description of it being minor also does little to mollify the situation, since we have lots of players miss substantive time with a "mild" concussion. Plus, as each concussion builds on the next and this is probably the third that Staal has endured, including the eye injury last season, one can only hope that the recovery time and lasting impact here is minimal.
In Staal's absence, the Rangers will go with the same D as used against Washington, since that worked out so well. McDonagh-Girardi, Del Zotto-Stralman and Falk-Moore. If they struggle against an inept offense, a change could be in the air. In my opinion, as I wrote Sunday, call up Allen and McIlrath, but at least one of them, and start benching others. You want to send a message that this is unacceptable, bench a big-name player, that will immediately get the team's attention.
The numbers are ugly. The Rangers fell to 5-7-1 at the Garden and dropped to 1-13-0 when their opponent scores first. They also have lost three times in the last 11 games when they themselves score first. They are just 5-4-1 against Metropolitan Division opponents following Saturday night’s 4-3 overtime defeat to the Devils and Sunday’s loss to Washington (16-12-2). Despite all the that, because the division is so bad, as of now, and take this with a grain of salt, they still are in a playoff spot.
The Rangers need to get back to making the simple play instead of trying to do too much. But more important, they need to show they care. That the anger they showed after Sunday's loss is real and not just lip service. That the name on the front of the jersey means more than the one of the back. If none of this happens, then the talk to blow this team up may be more realistic, needed and closer than we may have first thought.