Random thoughts before the Rangers face elimination

The Rangers are in Tampa Bay tonight, looking to stave off elimination and send the series back to New York for another Game Seven. The Bolts have already said they don’t want to come back to New York because, well, what else are they supposed to say? “Why yes, we want to go back to New York instead of trying to close this out in six, so we are going to forfeit”?

Throughout the season, the Rangers dealt with injuries to Ryan McDonagh, Dan Boyle, and most importantly Henrik Lundqvist, and survived. But yet it’s the injury to Mats Zuccarello that throws the offense into a tailspin of inconsistency. Some days they light the opposition up, some days they forget how to score. It’s a testament to how important to the offense –and to the depth– Zuccarello is.

Zuccarello has tremendous chemistry with Derick Brassard, and it appears he was the catalyst for a lot of the offense on that line. However, it’s the need to move players up in the lineup to roles in which they may not be ready that has really affected the lineup. Most notably affected is Martin St. Louis, who should be playing a sheltered, third line role getting offensive zone starts. Now, he’s thrust back into a top-six role.

Do I think that the lines can be altered a bit to get the best out of them? Absolutely. But they are minor tweaks that is really based on my own personal preference. The big absence is Zuccarello.

In Zuccarello’s absence, the Rangers needed their big guys –St. Louis and Rick Nash– to step up. Instead, it’s been Chris Kreider and Jesper Fast that have stepped up. It’s great to see the kids step up, but more is needed from St. Louis and Nash. At least Nash has been doing other little things right. St. Louis has been invisible, he’s been missing open opportunities, he’s been a step slow, and he’s been atrocious in the defensive zone.

Back to Kreider and Fast, both have been animals in the offensive zone, a definition I never thought I would give to Fast. Kreider has been a force in front of the net and has been in on most Rangers goals, either directly or indirectly via a screen in front. Fast has been doing the little things, like jumping in on a faceoff to gain possession or taking a hit to make a pass. Both have stepped up their games.

One area that hasn’t been a disaster is the fourth line. They’ve gotten pinned a lot more recently by the Lightning, which has been somewhat expected because of their speed and depth, but before this series they had been pretty solid.

The top-four defensemen, however, have been struggling big time. They’ve had moments of greatness and moments of brain-farts, but overall things like this can’t happen:

Courtesy of war-on-ice

Three of the top four defensemen are in the bottom-five in puck possession for the playoffs. Some of this is deployment related, as Dan Girardi generally gets top competition and Marc Staal gets the second line, but you need your best defensemen to be your best defensemen, and they simply haven’t been. Kevin Klein has struggled since returning, and it goes beyond the possession numbers. He’s been a step behind and has been out of position a lot.

While Staal has never been a possession darling, and I do believe there is more to evaluating defensemen than just possession, the bigger issue is that Klein and Girardi –not so much Staal– is that both are slow skaters. Matching Girardi on the Triplets is just asking for trouble. But there aren’t many better options.

Much like the Kings last year, the Bolts have really exploited the Rangers defense for their skating ability. This is a speed league, and if you can’t keep up, you have to gap control. While Girardi and Klein are far from the only culprits here, they are the most notable ones due to the role they play on the team. They need to be better.

Not much more Henrik Lundqvist can do honestly. He’s been unreal. He stole the Caps series. He shut down the Pens, and he’s limited the Bolts to two goals or fewer for three of five games this series.

The Rangers are in another do-or-die stretch of games. This is a club that steps it up when facing elimination, and they are never out of it with Lundqvist in net. The Bolts are not the Caps though, and can score up and down the lineup. It’s another tall order, but this is a team that can pull it off.