Rangers Recap: Time to start panicking?

Well, it just might be time to start panicking if you’re a Rangers fan. Another low scoring loss in regulation where the goaltender was far and above the best player on the ice. Results haven’t been there, the process has been inconsistent of late, and all of this has led to the Rangers losing four straight while being outplayed in all of them. It is late November, so at what point do we just accept that this is the team Chris Drury built? They are easy to play against, something which is on the personnel and not the coach, and extremely vanilla. While they don’t quit like last year, the Rangers get in their own heads once a goal is scored against them.

On the bright side, Jonathan Quick simply defies Father Time every time he steps into the crease. I have never seen anything quite like it. Years ago, people thought Quick was washed when he was traded from LA to Columbus and eventually to Vegas for a backup role. His return to form not only defies aging curves, but cements the Rangers goalie development staff as the best in the business. Quick (and Igor Shesterkin) has had to be a hero this year, and he’s just not getting any support on either end of the ice.

The irony in all this is for the last four years, the bottom six had been the problem while the top six beat all expectations. Now the roles are reversed, as the Rangers have a solid bottom six and perhaps one of the best fourth lines in hockey while the top six and stars of the team can’t seem to do anything right. They are comically snakebitten despite solid underlying numbers, and there’s only so much good process under new coach Mike Sullivan can do. If the skill players can’t score, the team isn’t going anywhere. Perhaps the roster assembled by Chris Drury is simply incomplete and flawed.

I genuinely want to know what the plan was for this season. They sold us on competing, but the roster and results don’t match the words. They never replaced Chris Kreider’s production or K’Andre Miller’s puck moving ability. The kicker is now needing to replace Artemi Panarin’s production, as it looks like he and the Rangers are heading in opposite directions. His no-move clause will dictate a lot too, which puts Drury at a disadvantage.

Is losing all these games the wake up call the front office needs? At some point do they realize it might be time to come out of this dreaded middle of the pack, and start to chip away at moving pieces on the roster to improve the team? The Thanksgiving cut off is approaching rapidly, and it’s flat out not looking good for the Rangers this season. I know Dave says Thanksgiving and then Christmas, but with how this team is looked, are we really willing to wait that long?