The struggling and offensively-challenged Rangers head to Ottawa on Tuesday to take on a Senators team, who have allowed more goals than only two teams in the East. As Maskdman3 asked in the blog comments: Can the Rangers score more than 1 goal or will Lundqvist have to pitch a shutout for the Rangers to win? This is a question that most Rangers fans figured would not be the case when they acquired Nash or when they swapped Tortorella for Vigneault or acquired St. Louis, yet that is the situation the Rangers find themselves in.
Sunday against San Jose, the Rangers played an excellent game. However, there were two problems, each interrelated, one they gave up a goal and two, they didn’t score. I don’t mean to be snarky, but the mere fact that we have to focus on the one error that was made, and yes it was bad pass by Richards to Zucc, is an indication that not all is right. The offense has shown it's way too streaky. When it's on, it's great, but when it's off, as it has been too much lately, there is no secondary or tertiary scoring to pick up the slack. Unfortunately, this has been the case almost all year.
We got spoiled when the PP was clicking. Now, it's been a nightmare. Scott Arniel needs to restore the Zucc trio to the top line as it existed before. In addition, the back pass to create momentum or pass up the middle isn’t working, anyone can see that, so go back to what worked. Because right now, nothing is.
Lately, the rage has been talking about how streaky Nash is or how St. Louis hasn't scored since coming over. In addition, as mentioned above the offense in general is streaky. We can make excuses or cover it up, but ultimately, this is a results oriented business. You got 40+ shots and generated lots of pressure, great, but did you score? If no, which was the case Sunday and many times this year, then honestly, I don’t care how many shots you got or pressure generated, you failed, plain and simple. Find a way to score, period, end strop. If not, then shift the lines up until you score. You can use the argument that eventually they will break through, and while that may be the case, with 13 games left, the Rangers don't have the time or luxury of a cushion to wait for that to happen.
No lineup changes tonight
Kreider – Stepan – Nash St. Louis – Brassard – Zuccarello Hagelin – Richards – Pouliot Boyle – Moore – Carcillo
McDonagh – Girardi Staal – Stralman Moore – Klein
Henrik Lundqvist (starting) Cam Talbot
Bottom line, find a way to get it done. Basically, for the Rangers, the playoffs have started early. View each game as a playoff contest, because if you lose, you may find yourselves on the outside looking in.