Who am I to refute Bill Parcells, but Regarding the Rangers, does anyone think that 6-2-2 is what they truly are even though much of the time they look like they are 2-6-2, instead?
1. There are underlying concerns throughout much of the lineup, but let’s start at the top, because the Blueshirts are not getting nearly enough from neither Artemi Panarin nor Mika Zibanejad, and if this somehow keeps up, the team has no chance.
Zibanejad has scored one goal at five-on-five, that one in Toronto in the fourth game of the season. Panarin, horribly deficient coming back on J.T. Miller’s second-chance decisive overtime goal in Monday’s 3-2 defeat in Vancouver, somehow doesn’t even have one, yet.
Is there any wonder that the Rangers have scored the sum of 13 five-on-five goals through 10 games?
Not to provide cover for these two essential players who by the way were going to be liberated with the change behind the bench from David Quinn to Gerard Gallant, I do wonder whether the new head coach’s simpler d-zone system that features a fair number of whack-it-outs has had the unintended consequence of suppressing odd-man rushes and open-ice possession through the neutral zone triggered by headman passes.
For it is routine for the Rangers to go through stretches of eight, nine, 10 minutes or more without generating a legitimate scoring chance, regardless of who is on the ice. This was a team built almost entirely on talent over the last three years. Now, it is metamorphosing into something else, but it’s difficult to discern what exactly that is as players adjust to Gallant’s demand for accountability.
Mind you, the Blueshirts had very little definition the first 20, 30, maybe even 40 games under Alain Vigneault when he replaced John Tortorella in 2013-14 while the team transitioned from Black-and-Blueshirt hockey to what became a whole lot of east-west accompanied by a whole of lot success. (Psst: Henrik Lundqvist.)
So it is still early in this transition. And, yes, the record is 6-2-2, even if built primarily on Psst: Igor Shesterkin. The goalie is, after all, part of the team. The Sabres of the ’90s didn’t spend their time apologizing for having Dominik Hasek. The Tortorella and Vigneault Rangers sure didn’t apologize for having Lundqvist.
And 6-2-2 provides a springboard and mitigates against doom-and-gloom scenarios as the team awaits a back-to-back against the Oilers and Flames commencing in Edmonton on Friday.
But make no mistake, there will be gloom and doom indeed if these first 10 games are representative of what Zibanejad and Panarin — going through his most inferior stretch of hockey on both sides of the puck since coming to New York — bring to the table this year.
2. Rhetorical question time: Would anyone watching a Rangers game — be it a casual fan, student of the game or talent evaluator — be able to identify Alexis Lafreniere as a first-overall selection?
Lafreniere seems to be having less impact on the ice then he did during last year’s challenging rookie go-round. He is not driving play, he is not generating offense, he is not creating chances — though, yes, he does lead the team with three goals at five-on-five.
On the other side of the puck, Lafreniere’s failure to clear the zone on what appeared a rather weak effort to begin with, directly led to the sequence on which the Canucks tied Tuesday’s game in the third period. This less than a week after he was chastised for turnovers.
I wonder, with Lafreniere’s ongoing issues and Filip Chytil’s generally blah work, would it make sense to move No. 13 into the middle, which is where many personnel people believe he’s belonged from the start?
Because if Lafreniere can capably make the shift to center, that would sure solve a whole lot of issues going forward for the Rangers.
3. Is it fair to be concerned that Kaapo Kakko doesn’t have a point through six games (five games plus one period) and has faded away through the first two matches of this trip that began with a 3-1 victory in Vegas on Sunday?
Kakko has recorded eight shots, five in the opener in Washington and three against Columbus on Friday, when he returned from a four-game absence because of a suspected shoulder injury. He has, at least for the moment, been dropped from the penalty-kill rotation, replaced by a combination of Chris Kreider and Greg McKegg. He played only 12:32 in Tuesday’s game that featured just 40:39 of five-on-five.
You do want to give Kakko the benefit of the doubt off his strong work through training camp that he is still catching up from missing nearly two weeks. But, despite the fact that he has been on the ice with Panarin for 64:04 of his 70:07 at five-on-five, No. 24’s xGF rate of 37.48 leads only McKegg (and Morgan Barron) among team forwards per Natural Stat Trick.
Or maybe that is because he’s been with Panarin? Might be time for another top-six adjustment, perhaps moving Kakko up with Kreider and Zibanejad while dropping Barclay Goodrow down.
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November 04, 2021 at 01:34AM
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Rangers have no chance if top stars keep playing like this - New York Post
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