What’s Gone Wrong With the New York Rangers?
Photo by Jess Starr / The Hockey Writers
On Jan. 1 of this year, the New York Rangers were first place in the Metropolitan Division with an excellent 25-9-1 record; seven points ahead of the next team in the standings. The star players on the team seemed to be performing well with one another and it looked like head coach, Peter Laviolette, was getting the absolute most out of his core group. All signs pointed to the fact that the Rangers were most likely the favorited team to win the Stanley Cup this year.
Flash forward to nine games later, and the Rangers are 28-14-2, with their Metropolitan lead cut down to two points. Their record still looks great and they are still technically in first place, as of Jan. 20. However, the team’s play has been the center of attention lately, and not in a good way. It is hard to point fingers at just one problem with this team. It has been more of an accumulation of problems over time, which are now coming together all at once.
For one, the first line is not performing at a level that it should be. Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider, and Kaapo Kakko are all great players, but the production between them is simply not enough. Zibanejad is off to a good start. He has had 42 points in 43 games, but this doesn’t really account for his play during five on five hockey. Only 14 of his points have come from even play; something that has to be drastically improved in order to help this team. Looking at Chris Kreider, he already has 20 goals this season. Goalscoring is his greatest strength, but that’s all he contributes to. Most of the time, it’s slow shifts and bad puck possession, which could also reflect on Zibanejad. The two forwards are ‘best friends’ off the ice and are always playing on the same line together, but a change in scenery might be really effective for both of them.
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Their linemate, Kaapo Kakko, has just come back from a lower-body injury, which kept him off the ice for the past two months. It’s only been three games, but he’s scored a goal, and has been a nice piece for a team who needs more top line scoring. This injury is cause for some concern, however, as he could hurt himself again or his production could come to a standstill. Rangers General Manager, Chris Drury, has to decide if this is a player who he wants to put all his chips into or if a new, big-name winger would revive this line’s scoring problem.
The second line of Artemi Panarin, Vincent Trocheck, and Alexis Lafreniere needs no introduction, as they are one of the best lines in all of hockey this year. It’s one of those, ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ kind of things, where this is the one line that Peter Laviolette should not be worried about whatsoever. One thing Laviolette should be worried about though, is the Rangers’ bottom six. It is easy to say that since Filip Chytil went down with an injury, the bottom lines on the team haven’t been the same. Guys like Blake Wheeler, Barclay Goodrow, and Nick Bonino are all veteran players who should account for some of the scoring on this team, but they aren’t, and that is a major problem. The worst thing that can happen to a team is when one line accounts for the majority of their scoring, and the rest of the lines give up goals. That is what’s happening with the Rangers.
Wheeler, Goodrow, and Bonino helped the team to an extent at the beginning of the season. This is part of the reason why they had so much success. Since the first few months, their production has gone down and they average a lot of giveaways. So, one thing that Drury and Laviolette can do with this team is try and break some of the lines up. Keep the second line the same, and bring rookie, Will Cuylle, up to the first line. This would send Chris Kreider down to the third line and everyone would see how he can perform with different players. After all, Cuylle leads all rookies in hits and has shown that he can play at a first line level.
This would also include making some moves at the trade deadline. One big need, as mentioned earlier, is a top line winger. Acquiring a player like Frank Vatrano from the Ducks, would mean a new player to play with Zibanejad. This would also move Kakko into a third line role, which suits his defensive play better. He may even end up playing with Kreider at that point. This current lineup though, is not cutting it, especially if the Rangers want to remain at the top of their division.
The Rangers defensive core has also been very disappointing this season, mostly over these last few weeks. The main four defensemen on this team are Adam Fox, Ryan Lindgren, Jacob Trouba, and K’Andre Miller. All of this talent, and yet poor defense is something that Rangers fans are talking about on a nightly basis. They are giving up a lot of fast breaks and high danger chances, which is inevitably leading to a load of goals coming from the opposition. Something that the Rangers pride themselves on is being a tough and big hitting team, yet that is not the team on the ice this year. Over the last 10 games, the Rangers have allowed four or more goals five times. One could see this as a goalie issue as well, but Peter Laviolette makes it seem like an inability to play sufficient defense.
“The first goal was tough. It was a real quick play. I think that we gave up three even strength chances in the first period, and they score on two of them. I wish we came off the bench from a little bit different angle when we did the line change and kept the numbers in front of the rush. That was tough... It unraveled it a way that everyone’s angry about.”
The two goalies, Igor Shesterkin and Jonathan Quick, have not been great over their last five starts and viewers are starting to worry about both of them. Shesterkin, the starter, is 2-3 with a save percentage of .864, while Quick is 1-3-1 with a .892 save percentage. Those numbers are not great considering how good they were to start the season. Shesterkin is a Vezina winning goalie, and Quick has won three Stanley Cups. Both guys are some of the best at their position, so it is not uncommon for them to be at the forefront of criticism by the fanbase. While it is an ongoing issue between poor goalie play and defensive issues, the defense has to provide good play in order for a goalie to succeed. The Rangers are having serious problems doing that, and it’s now showing. With contract talks happening in the near future for Igor Shesterkin, one has to wonder if he will step up to the challenge or continue to fail behind this team’s play.
It is only January and a lot of season is still left to be played, but one has to wonder how long the Rangers can hold their lead in the Metro before someone else takes over. The team will be looking to improve as a whole and with trades by the deadline. It should be a very interesting few weeks for the Rangers as the front office tries to sort out their issues.