Now, the team is in turmoil, injury ridden and threatened with a wholesale breakup. That's what happens when you go 4-6-0 in the ultra competitive Met Division. We predicted 13 points out of 20 with ten more likely. They ended up with eight.
The good news is that they won the games that they HAD to win. What they didn't do was win the toss-ups and they lost all of the games that would have been upsets. The sequence started with a shootout win over Arizona on the road. It's a warning sign when you eke out a win by shootout over the worst team in the NHL. They then went into their mid-season vacation with a tight 2-1 loss to Vegas. Optimists would claim that the Blueshirts could have won the game and they gave one of the best teams in the league a tough fight.
Game three was the disaster at MSG versus the Islanders, a 7-2 thrashing that raised the decibel level of the calls for a shakeup. They followed that with a desultory 5-2 loss on the road in Pittsburgh as they blew a 2-1 first period lead.
"Team Inconsistency" then played one of their best games of the year by whipping the surging Philadelphia Flyers, 5-1. They then made it two in a row by sneaking by the Buffalo Sabres...another game where the Rangers barely beat a bad team.
The finished with the four game road trip, winning only once. They held on for a tight loss against the hottest team in hockey, the Avalanche. The penalty kill fell apart in one period and it cost them a game in Los Angeles, After establishing a 2-0 lead and dominating a fragile Kings team, an ill-advised instigator penalty by Brendan Smith led to a PP goal and the team fell apart. They weren't competitive against Anaheim and ended the road trip on a positive with a 6-5 nail biter in San Jose. It's a clear indication that this season is in trouble when a third period 5-3 lead never felt safe, even with ten minutes left in the game.
There were some positives. The team finally scored a shorthanded goal and quickly added two more. Rick Nash broke out of his funk and scored two goals each in three games. Ryan McDonagh came back from an injury and Peter Holland proved he could be a solid fourth liner. Pavel Buchnevich demonstrated why he should be getting first line minutes and Tony DeAngelo showed signs that he may actually be an NHL defenseman.
There were a lot of negatives. Kevin Shattenkirk decided to have surgery on his meniscus. Chris Kreider remains out. Kevin Hayes missed five games with a lower body injury and his loss personified the lack of depth at center. Ondrej Pavelec came crashing back to earth, pulled in the Islander loss followed by a mediocre performance in relief of an awful Lundqvist in Anaheim and a shaky game in the win in San Jose.
Porbably most disturbing was Alain Vigneault 's treatment of J.T. Miller. True, Miller commited an egregious mistake that resulted in a Los Angeles goal, but Vigneault then benched Miller for the last two periods. The team's third leading scorer was stapled to the bench in a tight game when the Rangers were missing Hayes and Kreider and desperately needed offense. Asked post game, Vigneault's explanation was a terse "I saw enough." Of course, Miller responded with a three point, +3 game in San Jose where he was named the number one star. Sure, you know that Vigneault will take credit for pushing Miller to excel, but Miller is not a kid anymore. He's 24 and in his 5th season in the NHL. It's shortsighted to punish a key offensive player like Miller in a crucial game where they need offense. Sorry, I just disagree with the benching.
The Next Ten Games
What to look forward to in the next ten games? Who the hell knows? We all know what the team needs to do. They need to win seven out of the ten games and get points in eight out of the ten. They do that and they will establish themselves as a playoff team. What are the odds?
They play ten games in 18 days with four of the games at Madison Square Garden. They only have one set of back to back games (the last two at Ottawa and home vs. the Flyers). They open at home against a streaking Maple Leafs team that just dismantled the Islanders in Toronto. A quick trip to Nashville and Dallas will be a challenge. They come home to play Boston and Calgary then have a four game road trip to Winnipeg, Minnesota, Brooklyn and Ottawa. They finish by hosting the Flyers in a Sunday matinee game.
The only "soft" game is against the Senators who are headed for a lottery pick. Toronto and Boston are assured of playoff slots and are both playing well. The rest of the games will be against teams as desperate for points as the Rangers.
To predict the point total for the next ten games is impossible. I think that 12 or even 14 points is achievable, if the team is firing on all cylinders. I could also see them only getting six points out of 20. Circle Thursday, February 15 on your calendars. That's when the Rangers play the Islanders at Barclays. They owe the Isles a spanking after the humiliation last month. If they don't do it, the season could be lost.
After the next ten games, the team will play three more before the trade deadline. If they get off to a bad start in the next few games it is entirely possible that they could pull the trigger on a deal before the deadline. To say that the next ten game sequence is the most important series of games to the future of the team is not an understatement. It will be interesting.
Some Notes
The Rangers acquired enforcer Cody McLeod on waivers from Nashville just before the All Star break. He will make his debut, wearing #8, against Toronto replacing Vinni Lettieri. He's not a scorer, with only one goal and one assist in 23 games this season. He did score 15 goals in one season for Colorado back in 2009. He has 72 minutes in penalties this season compared to the entire Ranger team total of 394 minutes. He's third in the league with six fighting majors this season, one more than the entire Ranger team. He led the league in fights last year. FYI, Brendan Smith leads the team in penalty minutes with 65 this season.
Why did they get him? At first the reports were that he would be playing in Hartford, ostensibly as "protection" for Filip Chytil and Lias Andersson. The sell-off conspiracy theorists pointed to him as a depth acquisition with the imminent departure of Nash and Grabner. It's not like the Blueshirts have been pushed around, but knowing Vigneault's affection for Tanner Glass, it is no small wonder that McLeod is playing over Vinni Lettieri.
How ARE the kids doing? Filip Chytil has had an outstanding rookie season with 20 points in 24 games including seven goals and a +4 rating. Lias Andersson has two assists in three games since coming over from Sweden. Even more impressive, the Wolf Pack have won five games in a row for the first time this season. A player to watch is 21 year old Russian goalie Alexandar Georgiev. An off-season free agent signee, he got off to an awful start with a record of 4-11-2, a GAA north of 3.40 and a save percentage of .880. In his last five games he is 5-0 with a GAA under 1.40 and a save percentage of .958 and two shutouts. If he keeps this up, we may see him actually playing this season in the NHL (he backed up Pavelec once). He was a star in Finnish Liga and is a Benoit Allaire project.
At least there is some hope for the future.
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