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New York Rangers’ Early-Season Grade

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By @bfitzsports

New York Rangers win

Adam Hunger-USA TODAY Sports

As we hit the quarter point of the NHL season, many teams are revealing themselves as contenders or pretenders. Teams that are in a playoff spot right now are likely to make it to the dance barring a letdown. The New York Rangers are miraculously in a playoff spot despite facing some adversity over the first two months of the season.

There was no question that in the early part of the season the Rangers were trying to find themselves. They were a team that had just made it to the Stanley Cup Finals, but went through a lot of changes over the offseason. They lost four regularly contributing forwards, and lost a top four defenseman. The depth of the team was a hot debate, and to make matters worse, they lost Derek Stepan for the first month and a half due to a broken leg he suffered in training camp.

Inconsistency and injuries have plagued this team through the early part of the NHL season. Outside of Rick Nash, no other player has stood out from the pack, with the exception of the recently returned Stepan and Derick Brassard for a long stretch. In fact, before the Rangers’ last game against the Philadelphia Flyers, the Rangers had not won a game without Nash scoring some sort of goal, whether it was in regulation, overtime or the shootout. There was a stretch when the Rangers were without four of their top six defenseman, including captain Ryan McDonagh and newcomer Dan Boyle.

Now, the Rangers are relatively healthy and they are starting to find themselves as a team. Youngsters like Kevin Hayes, Anthony Duclair and Jesper Fast have found ways to contribute when given the chance. Nash has continued his scorching hot start and Martin St. Louis is rebounding from a slow start and is looking like a difference-maker and a leader for this relatively young team. The lines are starting to form with players coming back into the lineup, and even the atrocity for years known as the Rangers’ power play is starting to find a rhythm.

The goaltending hasn’t been superb, but Henrik Lundqvist got off to a rough start last season, and, after some doubt, rebounded to have another fantastic regular season and playoffs. Cam Talbot, who you can argue kept the Rangers afloat in the early part of last season, also got off to a slow start but has posted back-to-back shutouts and is starting to track pucks better. Goaltending has not been the main issue for this team, and, as we have seen in years past, will get better as the season rolls along.

With all of the injuries and having to shuffle players in and out of the lineup, the Rangers would find themselves in the playoffs if the season ended today, but they need to find more consistency in their game. They have had some absolute stinkers against the likes of the Edmonton Oilers and Tampa Bay Lightning.

All in all, it has been a rather pedestrian start to the season for the Rangers, but since expectations were high coming into their season, I only give them a C+.

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