In two weeks, the New York Rangers went from driving excessive and battling for the highest spot within the Jap Convention to the sky falling.
Will a four-day stretch between video games be sufficient to assist the Rangers return to the fantastic begin to the marketing campaign? Or, will it’s extra of the identical for the membership that has dropped six of seven video games, all in regulation?
Frankly, whereas there may be panic in Manhattan, allow us to contemplate the more than likely state of affairs is behind Door No. 3: The shedding skid is solely a correction for a staff that’s nonetheless a contender, however with its share of flaws.
The Rangers are very a lot the identical staff that final season topped the NHL common season standings with 55 wins and 114 factors after which misplaced to the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers within the Jap Convention Remaining. Certain, it felt like an entire season of every thing going proper for the Rangers, however you can not argue with the success.
Going additional again, this can be a franchise that gained 154 video games over the previous three seasons.
It’s merely silly to consider the time is at hand to explode the squad over a few awful weeks—a skid exacerbated by Monday’s 5-1 shellacking by the hands of the rival New Jersey Devils, which makes a defeat all of the extra crushing.
In spite of everything, even with this swoon, the Rangers sit in a playoff spot two dozen video games into the season, with the Pittsburgh Penguins coming to go to on Friday.
At a time like this, and on this scenario, as a rule, issues are set again proper with cooler heads.
That mentioned, the Rangers, from common supervisor Chris Drury by means of the teaching workers led by Peter Laviolette and all of the gamers, are effectively conscious they’re watching a crossroads.
The phrase leaking out that Drury has been actively making an attempt to commerce Jacob Trouba and Chris Kreider seems to have impacted the room, however that’s solely a part of the equation. The very fact is, dealing away these gamers will likely be much more troublesome than transferring the likes of Kaapo Kakko or Filip Chytil, however it’s not possible the Rangers could make a franchise-altering deal.
Offensively, the Rangers are in dire want of extra. Whereas Will Cuylie and Alexis Lafreniere are having breakout seasons, dynamic defenseman Adam Fox has recorded 20 assists however no targets, Chris Kreider has 9 targets however no assists, Vincent Trocheck has solely 12 factors and Mika Zibanejad is off the tempo of the previous few seasons and has been a defensive legal responsibility. Kakko and Chytil are placing up first rate numbers, however to not the expectations from once they have been drafted.
Extra alarming is the defensive aspect of the sport, and that is the place Laviolette is beneath the gun. The Rangers are second worst within the league in photographs allowed per sport at 32.8, a median of greater than three photographs per sport in comparison with final season. The pressure is beginning to present on the goaltending, notably star netminder Igor Shesterkin.
Amidst Shesterkin’s unresolved contract scenario—he is because of turn out to be an unrestricted free agent after this season and is trying to turn out to be the league’s highest-paid goaltender—the goalie has put himself within the breach.
In his first 9 video games of the season, Shesterkin posted a 6-2-1 file with a 2.22 goals-against common and .933 save proportion. In his final 9 video games, it has added as much as a 2-7-0 mark with a 3.93 GAA and .882 SvPct.
The decision for drastic change is rising louder and could also be obligatory sooner or later, however an enormous commerce or teaching change for this staff is extra of a last-resort transfer, not one obligatory after a two-week stoop.
