A lone bright spot

A lone bright spot

It’s been an up and down season so far for the Rangers as the trade deadline approaches, with an early win streak still keeping them afloat in the standings despite some mediocre play of late. Although the on-ice possession metrics have been improving steadily, the Rangers are still plainly capable of losing badly, as evidenced by their shutout loss against Ottawa and the other night’s defeat at the hands of divisional rivals the Devils.

The Rangers may still likely make the playoffs, but it’s hard to say watching this team that they’re a legitimate contender for the Stanley Cup. All of this means that this trade deadline will be critical juncture for the New York Rangers, with the organization demonstrating whether or not it recognizes the obvious issues with this team or whether it will recommit to the kinds of practices that got us to this point just two seasons after making it to the Cup finals.

The most glaringly obvious issue with this team is that its defense is falling apart. Dan Girardi and Marc Staal are no longer the defensemen they once were, with the former logging positive possession numbers in only 9 out of 44 games played and the latter doing so in 15 out of 50 games. Needless to say these two have struggled in their roles as minute-eating shutdown defensemen, but others, such as Dan Boyle have struggled as well.

One of the lone bright spots on the blue line this season has been Keith Yandle, and yet he finds himself playing limited minutes at both even strength and on the man-advantage. Suffice to say that this d-corps is simply not putting the team in a position to succeed on a nightly basis, let alone a position to make a serious run at the Cup.

Right along with the defensive issues has been the Rangers penalty kill, which while once among the best in the league recently has looked positively hemorrhagic. At 32 goals against on the penalty kill, the Rangers are only better shorthanded than Columbus, Colorado, Philadelphia, Winnipeg, Arizona, and Ottawa; not exactly the best company to keep. By penalty kill percentage too the Rangers don’t look stellar, coming in at 25th in the league. The recent acquisition of Daniel Paille sought to remedy this issue but adding a player whose underlying numbers are akin to those of Tanner Glass has only made things look worse.

Finally there’s the issue of forward production. While Mats Zuccarello and J.T. Miller have shined up front at different points in the season, it still doesn’t cover up the fact that Rick Nash and Chris Kreider have been relatively quiet for solid portions of the season. Part of the issue here is the Rangers’ broader possession struggles have given them little to work with, but the fact remains that the Rangers could use another shooter in the top six in order to really get the most out of its forward group. This would help take some of the pressure of Nash and Kreider and force teams to choose which scoring threat to cover most diligently.

All of this circles back to my original point which is this: how the front office behaves at this trade deadline will demonstrate to whether and to what degree the organization as a whole understands and is seeking to remedy the kinds of issues that are so plain to see. Obviously trading either Staal or Girardi in order to clear critical cap space would be ideal, and would demonstrate a deep understanding of the bind this team put itself in when it opted to extend the two stalwart defensemen in lieu of re-signing Anton Stralman. Beyond that however, whatever becomes of Keith Yandle will show us exactly how the Rangers evaluate talent on the back end and whether or not the front office still sees the team as a contender.

The extent to which the coaching staff makes ice time adjustments, especially on special teams, will also be very telling. Lastly, any trade for a top six forward will be revealing as to exactly which players the team values and in what ways. Given the issues this team is currently facing, the distance it has fallen from legitimate contender status, and some of the decisions the team has been making in the recent pass, this trade deadline will be a critical juncture for the organization to either move forward or continue to slide. With Henrik Lundqvist beginning to show signs of age, let’s hope they choose the former.

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