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Conor Allen Has To Make Most Of Opportunity With New York Rangers

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By @bfitzsports

Ryan McDonagh Injury

Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

The New York Rangers‘ defense was supposed to be one of the very few sure things about the team coming into the season. Besides Henrik Lundqvist, the six defensemen the Rangers were returning were all supposed to know their roles and be the backbone of the team. After the first month of the season, the Rangers are currently without four of their six opening night defensemen. Dan Boyle, Kevin Klein and captain Ryan McDonagh are all out with injuries, and John Moore still has four games left to serve on his five-game suspension. Young defenseman Conor Allen was called up yesterday to fill the holes, and it’s now or never for Allen to make his case to stick with the Rangers for the foreseeable future.

Allen, who is 24 years old, is a young player in the sense that he hasn’t had much experience in the NHL. In fact, he has only played in three NHL games. He is 24, which means that there is not much more room for development. He is what he is physically at this point in his career. With this being said, however, he can still get better in a few areas.

One of the knocks on Allen has been his lack of ability to make good decisions when the puck is on his stick. That was the main problem that plagued Allen during the preseason. His skating ability is excellent and he has shown that he can make good passes, but he is still inconsistent in that area.

With Moore’s Ranger future in question, Allen has to look at this opportunity as a chance for him to stick with the big club. The Rangers are obviously going to need a left-handed defenseman for the next three to four weeks with McDonagh out, but if Allen can show he can play a consistent game, there is a real shot that he could be on the Rangers’ third defense pairing for the rest of the season.

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