Isiah Thomas is certainly the most hated man in New York City, but if the New York Rangers don’t show some signs of consistency in the near future, the boo birds will be at every Madison Square Garden sporting event.
The majority of the people who did not choose the San Jose Sharks to win the Stanley Cup prior to the season chose the Rangers, and why wouldn’t they? A team that has been on the rise over the past two seasons only got better adding Chris Drury and Scott Gomez to an offense that already boasted Jaromir Jagr, Brendan Shanahan, and Martin Straka should be the easy favorite, am I wrong? Then why is it that today, 43 games into the season, the blueshirts find themselves closer to being out of the postseason than they do being a division leader.
The forward lines and endless combinations coach Tom Renney has to work with would scare any opposing club on paper, but in the games New York’s offense has in fact been the league’s worst. Ranked at 30th in the NHL, the Rangers are scoring just 2.36 goals per game, a feat that seemed impossible when Drury and Gomez signed the dotted lines over the summer. And, if not for their 6th ranked defense, and outstanding goaltending, the Rangers would be one of the game’s biggest disappointments in history.
Currently riding a four-game losing streak, the Rangers have had four losing streaks of at least three games this season, while being shutout five different times. No Ranger is averaging a point per game as Gomez (39) and Jagr (37) fall just short of the margin, but it is the plus/minus statistic that is rather shocking on the New York stat sheet. Only seven regulars have a positive rating and some of their most important players fall far from even. Drury (-9) and Ryan Hollweg (-8) haven’t had impressive first halves and Fedor Tyutin (-7) and Jason Strudwick (-3) aren’t exactly giving the Rangers defense a good name.
There are still 39 games left for the Rangers to find themselves as a team before they have to make a run at the East. It is imperative that New York does not back into the playoffs with a first round match up against Ottawa or New Jersey. The Rangers need to secure home ice at least for the first series and look to face a five seed or lower and build off the opening round the way they did against Atlanta last year before their battle with Buffalo in the quarterfinals.
The talent is certainly there and there is no reason the New York Rangers should not be sitting atop the Eastern Conference with a long postseason in their minds. Instead, they are thinking about getting into the playoffs as Henrik Lundqvist has to stand on his head every night for a team that can’t find the back of the net.
Around the League
It would appear as though the Bruins are doing their annual nosedive out of the playoff race. The B’s have dropped 7 of 10, falling to seventh in the East.
The Southeast has finally assured themselves as the worst division in the NHL. Only Carolina is in the postseason picture as of right now with Florida, Washington, and Tampa Bay being three of the four worst teams in the league.
If Detroit doesn’t at least make it to the Stanley Cup Finals this season it would be a huge disappointment. The Red Wings are 33-8-3 and are dominating the West yet again, this time they better have something to show for it.
Phoenix has gotten their act together out West. The Coyotes are four games over .500 and two points out of a playoff spot with “The Great One” finding himself as a coach.
New Jersey has heated up to become the third best team in the league. The one team you don’t want to see in a seven games series has found their groove.
