Rick Nash not scoring is now a major issue for the Rangers – and Nash

It’s a good job Rick Nash gets paid a boat load of money because he’s having to put up with a lot of criticism since the playoffs began. Once again, the Rangers play their biggest game of the season in Tampa Bay tonight, looking to right the many wrongs of the game two stinker. A considerable amount of scrutiny will face Nash as the Rangers have now arrived at the point where good performances, great two-way play and timely assists from Nash are no longer enough. His lack of goals have surely become a major distraction and are now the elephant in the room. Win or loss.

Nash has to score. He has to score because the media demand it, the Rangers need it and because everyone know Tampa have the offence to score at will. Not helping Nash is the fact that Tampa’s superstar Steven Stamkos has found his game after a difficult start to the playoffs and Tyler (undrafted) Johnson has dominated the playoffs and has been an absolute beast against the Rangers. Given Nash’s 42 goal season, coupled with his seemingly annual playoff regression, seeing the opponents’ most important goal scorers raise their games at the most critical moments will be particularly jarring for Nash and fodder for the mob who are happy to criticise Nash.

It doesn’t really matter if Nash doesn’t score, providing that the Rangers win. If the Rangers win Nash will have more questions to face but he’d have more time to rectify the situation and contribute. However, if the Rangers lose and Nash doesn’t score the world – the media – will be intolerable leading into game four. Worse still for Nash and the Rangers; if the Rangers were to bow out against Tampa and Nash remains off the score sheet his return to New York may even become problematic. A star player making almost $8m, suddenly seen as a declining asset with damaged trade value? No Bueno.

Tyler Johnson needs to be the immediate example for Nash. Look at Johnson’s game two performance while, for a moment, disregarding the generous help the Rangers gave Johnson. Johnson’s goals were scored in the dangerous areas. He crashed the net, got rebounds, he scored from right in front of Lundqvist and he was around the net all night, he found space. As Nash’s goal scoring crisis has become an ongoing, developing storyline for the media, Nash appears to have moved away from the net, he appears struggling to create space – the result of a confidence issue, the result of all the media talk?

The Rangers need Nash to score if only to be able to refocus their efforts. After an impressive game one, game two was so bad, so sloppy that if the Rangers happen to lose game three and Nash again draws a blank the Rangers will have a ton of distractions entering a critical game four. Nash has been playing well and most Rangers fans acknowledge this but we’ve arrived at the point where Nash simply needs to score. The Rangers are a close knit team, Nash an experienced star player but the subplot of Nash’s lack of goals has become problematic and is a genuine threat to the Rangers progression. Tonight, and the rest of this conference final series, is huge for Rick Nash, its huge for the Rangers. Nash’s Rangers career may even hinge on it.