NFL Tickets
It might be time to hit the panic button with the New York Rangers after a 7-3 defeat to the Washington Capitals. The loss was the Rangers’ sixth in their last seven games (1-5-1) and the 11th time in the last 14 games the team failed to come away with two points. It isn’t easy to explain, because the best explanation at this time is that the Rangers forgot how to play hockey.
There is no way the Rangers are this bad. This is still mostly the same team that won a President’s Trophy with their all-world goalie on the bench nursing an injury. Of course, they could be.
The Rangers have playeded like the worst team in hockey over the last few weeks. They are getting beaten in every way, from shoddy goaltending to defensive lapses that make fans pull their hair out to just plain old bad luck. It is an avalanche of bad things happening and the team, which has shown a mental toughness in the past, is crumbling.
They aren’t establishing a forecheck; they are leaving opposing forwards wide open to bury rebounds; they are failing to be aggressive on the power play; they are making bad passes; and they aren’t using their bodies to block shots. They just aren’t playing Rangers hockey.
Injuries have obviously played a small role, but every team deals with them. Last year the Rangers lost Henrik Lundqvist, their most important player, for most of the season and still managed to win the President’s Trophy. The young players the Rangers have had to rely on like Kevin Hayes and Chris Kreider have been awful. Several of their defensemen, such as Dan Girardi, Marc Staal and Dan Boyle, have gone through long stretches where they played like timid juniors instead of seasoned professionals. Then there is Lundqvist who started the year making highlight saves on a nightly basis to looking like a ghost of himself while posting a 3.51 GAA and disgusting .892 save percentage in his last 11 games. He has posted a 4.62 GAA and .867 save percentage over his last five games alone.
Those are numbers that would make Rangers fans pine for the return of Mike Dunham or even Kevin Weekes.
The poor goalie play is partially on Lundqvist and partially on the team in front of him. The team is allowing too many open shots and are failing to get in front of the puck. They aren’t forcing turnovers and are turning the puck over themselves at an alarming rate.
The Rangers can either sink deeper or they can fight their way out of this current slump. In order to fight their way out, they will need to get down to basics and go from there. If that fails then it might be time to rebuild. At least they could shed some large contracts like those of Staal, Girardi and maybe Rick Nash and see what can be had in return.
The Rangers are playing their worst hockey at the worst possible time. While it isn’t too late yet, the Rangers know that time is running out. They had a chance to dig themselves out on the West Coast but lost all three to inferior teams. They followed that up with more duds back home. These were winnable games. They even had a 3-1 lead over the Capitals but the cracks in the armor proved too easy to exploit. Getting back to basics at this point might be the best thing for everyone.
Share 
