This is getting serious now. This is no mere slump. Twenty-three games into the season and if the playoffs were to start tomorrow, the Rangers would be on the outside looking in. Incredible, isn't it? Last year a conference finalist; this year eliminated from the postseason.
So what's wrong? I believe it comes to three things.
Igor Shesterkin: Let's face it, last year's Vezina trophy winner just hasn't lived up to his billing. While he's been good, and at times very good, he has yet to steal a game this season. Even in the one shutout he posted against the Flyers, it was Carter Hart who wound up stealing a point, keeping the Blueshirts off the scoreboard until Chris Kreider beat him on a breakaway in OT.
Pucks that were once routinely turned aside, are now finding their way in the back of the net. Shesterkin has allowed a questionable goal in each his last two starts: the game-tying goal against the Oilers and the go-ahead goal against the Devils. Had last year's Igor been in net, the Rangers likely would've won both games instead of losing them.
Inconsistent play: Too often this season, the Rangers have made middling goalies look like all stars. Including the Flyers game, on five separate occasions, the Rangers have been stymied by the opposing goalie. Despite outshooting the Devils 17-4 in the third period of Monday night's loss, all they could muster was one goal - a power play tally by Vincent Trocheck off a rebound with six minutes to go.
It has been perplexing to say the least to see a team with so much elite-level talent, a team that has been averaging 30 plus shots per game, unable to get its offense untracked. Indeed, if you take away the 8-2 romp they had over the Red Wings in Detroit, only twice this month have the Rangers scored more than three goals in a game, and that was against the lowly Coyotes (4) and the Kings (5). Either they get off to a good start and take their foot off the accelerator, or they fall behind early and can't catch up.
A large part of the inconsistency has been the power play. In a word, it's become predictable as dirt. Fox passes to Panarin on right wing, Panarin finds Zibanejad with a cross-ice pass, and Zibanejad buries a one timer past the goalie. Perfect, right? Except every team in the league with a scouting department worth a damn knows that cross-ice pass to Zibanejad is coming and they're breaking it up. As a result, the Rangers have gone 4 for 28 (14.2 percent) on the power play over their last eight games.
But the bulk of the inconsistency is owed directly to a lack of effort. By my count, the Rangers have had a total of three games in which they've played a solid sixty minutes: the 3-1 season opener win against the Lightning, the 3-2 OT loss to the Avalanche and the 1-0 OT shutout against the Flyers. That's it. Three games out of twenty-three. That's not good enough to even qualify for the playoffs, much less win the Stanley Cup.
Lack of toughness: Did you see it? I'm sure you did. Seconds after Leon Draisaitl put the Oilers ahead 4-3 late in the third period, he skated by Jacob Trouba and knocked the defenseman's stick out of his hands. If that had happened last season, Draisaitl would've been challenged immediately, if not by Trouba, then certainly by someone else. No way that shit would've gone unanswered. Excuses like they didn't want to take a penalty and ruin any chance of tying the game just aren't cutting it.
By now, every team in the NHL has gotten a hold of that video and I guarantee you they're taking notes. The team that last season stood up for each other now looks more like the team David Quinn coached in 2020-21. And we all know how that ended: A .500 team that got run out of every rink in the league. Of all the problems besetting this team, this is the one that, if not corrected, will sink the season. The offense will finally break through; Igor will rediscover his game; but a spine is something a team either has or it doesn't have. There's no in-between.
Bottom line, time is running out on the Rangers. This isn't last season when we knew who the top eight teams in the Eastern Conference were and the only question was the seating. This season there are approximately ten teams - eleven if you count the Capitals - that will be jockeying for eight playoff spots. At the rate they're going, the Rangers are going to run out of runway soon.
If this team is going to turn the season around, it had better start before it's too late.
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