derek stepan
Stepan (Photo by Joel Auerbach/Getty Images)

The Rangers start a very tough four game stretch in Anaheim on Wednesday night when they take on the Ducks. With the Sharks, Kings and the vastly improved Islanders all to come during this short, but brutal stretch, the Rangers will find out a lot about the readiness of their team as they look to return to the Stanley Cup final. Perhaps most importantly, this stretch will tell Glen Sather and the Rangers management what they can expect out of their current group of centers.

The group of centers the Rangers will face over the next four games reads like an All Star roster, it really doesn’t get much tougher. It’s reasonable to suggest that all of Getzlaf, Kesler, Carter, Kopitar, Thornton, Couture and John Tavares would all be the Rangers number one center. They are all elite centers capable of dominating opponents and/or putting up elite offense. When out west, the Rangers will again have to cope with the size of the Ducks and Kings. Something they’ve struggled to cope with.

This stretch of four games will be the biggest test of Kevin Hayes’s brief NHL career. It will tell us more about what exposure Hayes is ready for, regardless of his faceoff inability. Can Hayes go head to head with the bigger, elite centers night in, night out? Can he be a match up center in the long term?

In addition to finding out more about Hayes this four game stretch will indicate whether Derick Brassard and Derek Stepan can keep producing the way they have done – so impressively this season – against the better, ‘contending’ teams. In the Stanley Cup finals, Stepan had just two assists, was -3 and twice had faceoff win percentages under .400%. Brassard had a point more than Stepan against the Kings but struggled even more at faceoffs. Neither center was able to impose himself at all on the Kings and between them, they had just one goal (Brassard, game two). Minimal production from the Rangers centers against the West’s elite.

Believe it or not, this tough stretch of games comes at a good time for the Rangers. The games are getting more meaningful as the playoff race gets more intense and slowly but surely the trade deadline is approaching. So far this year, it appears the Rangers have really solidified their center position but this patch of the schedule may begin to suggest otherwise. At the very least it could confirm that the Rangers need more size. At the end of this stretch Glen Sather should have a clearer picture of what he needs to do before the deadline to firm up his club as a contender.

 

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