After chatting with a few people last night at the Flyers-Islanders game, it appears that some people are under the impression that the lack luster start to the Rangers season was because the renovations to Madison Square Garden kept them on the road for the first four weeks of the season. Not true. Since they've been allowed back in the building, they've played nine games at home and lost five of them. That is not what I would call a good home record.
Their recent success has everything to do with better communication and understanding between the players and new head coach Alain Vigneault. Period.
You could make a good case about the goaltending issue - having a more reliable back up in Cam Talbot and Henrik Lundqvist back on his game, or at least used to his new pads, but the reality is the Rangers had three horrific games in which they allowed 20 goals. Even though they only allowed an average of two goals in the seven other games in that terrible ten game start to the season, 20 goals in three games is more than enough to distort your statistics and place a lot of blame on the men between the pipes. Fact is, there was enough blame to go around. The offense was inconsistent, the penalty kill was awful and confidence in general was abysmal.
So while a better performance from their goaltending tandem has certainly helped the cause, so has their increased offense and better efforts on the penalty kill which points directly back to the coaches implementing the systems they want. The Rangers are finally using their assets to their advantage in a system that is built around solid team defense, utilizing their speed and attacking through the neutral zone that ultimately leads to success.
Now that they've gotten over the .500 mark with increased offensive production - nearly double, 2.8 goals per game compared to 1.5 in the first ten - and more consistent effort on the back end - 1.5 goals against compared to 3.5 in the first ten (2.12 if you take out the three horrific games), it's quite evident that these are the Rangers that we fully expected to see this season…They just showed up ten games late.
Looking forward, their next six games are against teams outside their division also known as the perfect opportunity to gobble up points, make some waves across the league and move up the standings. Game on.
Julie
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