The New York Rangers lost 3-2 in overtime to the Hurricanes on Monday and 6-3 to the Capitals on Wednesday. While the losses pushed the team further away from a playoff spot, those may have been the least of the impact. New York lost Noah Laba and Conor Sheary to injury, and cap constraints impacted who they promoted as well as demoted. Not the way you want to go into the Winter Classic in Miami against the Panthers on National TV.
New York is in no man’s land in the standings and possibly as an organization. Do they punt to try and move players with an NMC or NTC, or do they try to bolster what they currently have, even though that is not the wisest course of action? My opinion is that this team is lost, philosophically, organizationally, and as a management group. The time for the flamethrower, barring a miraculous turnaround, has come. But do you trust Chris Drury to helm that rebuild?
Game recap vs. Hurricanes:
Rangers lines vs. the Hurricanes:
Panarin-Zibanejad-Lafrenière
Perreault-Trocheck-Cuylle
Sheary-Laba-Raddysh
Brodzinski-Carrick-Rempe
Gavrikov-Schneider
Soucy-Borgen
Robertson-Morrow
Shesterkin
Quick
Scratches: Vaakanainen, Othmann
IR: Miller (upper-body injury)
LTIR: Fox (upper-body injury), Edström (lower-body injury)
Game recap vs. Capitals:
Rangers lines in D.C.:
Panarin-Zibanejad-Cuylle
Perreault-Trocheck-Lafrenière
Sheary-Laba-Raddysh
Brodzinski-Carrick-Rempe
Gavrikov-Fox
Schneider-Borgen
Soucy-Robertson
Quick
Shesterkin
Scratches: Vaakanainen, Othmann
IR: Miller (upper-body injury)
LTIR: Edström (lower-body injury)
A few thoughts:
1) My discussion on the games will be very brief, because honestly, it’s lather, rinse, repeat. Stay close enough to trail by a goal or so, maybe come back late, then find a way to lose. Whether it’s the lack of talent or player intelligence or system or structure or whatever reason you like best, this team is going nowhere and fast. More concerning is the lack of an upper-tier pipeline.
New York traded picks to try to win a Cup. Some deals helped, while others were head-scratching based on what was available and what the team needed. The team also dished out NMC and NTC like jelly beans, restricting the ability to move players more easily. New York had to send down Brennan Othmann, who has not played well enough to stick, but had to be sent down because the team lacks enough cap room to allow him to remain with the parent club.
Our pipeline has EJ Emery, who is a nice player but a max second-pair defensive d-man, when the team could have selected Igor Chernyshov, who went 33rd overall to the Sharks. The hope is Malcolm Spence develops, though to me, right now, he strikes me as a third-line winger who might be able to move up a trio. But drafting for size as opposed to skill or the best player available has proven to be disastrous, evidenced by the organization’s prospect rating and overall grade.
2) Tom Wilson wreaked havoc on the Rangers. First, he delivered a nasty legal check, freight training Laba, knocking him from the game and sidelining him for an unknown period of time with what looks to be a shoulder injury. On that same shift, Wilson scored to add insult to injury. No one responded on that shift.
Later, Sam Carrick challenged and fought Wilson, with Matt Rempe unable to fight due to his hand injury. Carrick ended up with an extra two minutes, which resulted in a PPG against. This is a situation where you lose the battle to win the war. Someone had to step up to challenge Wilson so that the hit was not left alone. Carrick, who should be the leader for the Steven McDonald Award, has stepped up all year.
3) Adam Fox: if one positive came out of the Washington game, it was the return of Fox. He stepped right back in after missing a month of action, notching an assist and a goal. All this came after he didn’t get the call that he was making the US Olympic Team, a fact which basically has been confirmed by several of the insiders and then Fox on Thursday, as the formal team announcement is during the Today Show tomorrow at 8 am.
Fox did not have a good 4 Nations tournament. His lack of speed was exposed, though that has never been his game. Fox struggled, especially late in the tourney, and was replaced on the PP by Zach Werenski. He knows he had a good year, despite what the Metrics say, or 4 Nations, which also might have been partially due to the two knee-on-knee hits he took the prior season. All that said, a fully healthy Fox looked like the Fox of a few years ago to start the season before the shoulder injury cost him 14 contests.
He never relied on speed, but rather on anticipation and cutting off angles. The injury cost Fox a month and had a material impact on his not making the team. Fox expressed his disappointment Thursday, and I hope he takes out that annoyance/anger every time the team, especially plays Minnesota or any other team. GM Chris Drury, coach Mike Sulivan and associate coach David Quinn are all part of Team USA brass, and they couldn’t sway the remainder of the decision makers to take Fox over someone like Noah Hanifin.
4) The time has come to cut bait and trade what you can. Identify the core players, which likely are Gabe Perreault, Will Cuylle, Fox, Vladsilav Gavrikov, and Igor Shesterkin. That’s 25% of a roster; the rest, especially the big names, can go if they can be moved. If you want to keep Adam Edström and Carrick as part of a fourth line and for veteran leadership, fine. Same maybe with Matt Rempe because he is cheap and can be slotted in, I will allow that. Beyond this list, back up the truck.
As I said above, is Drury the right man for the job? Based on what we have seen to date, the answer to me is no. But if James Dolan and/or Glen Sather say that he is, then all our ranting and raving won’t matter. We see what has happened after Buffalo made a GM switch, though that may be correlation vs. causation for their 10-game win streak.
Irrespective of your view of that, to quote the late, great Michael Ray Richardson, the ship is sinking. In fact, given what I noted above, it’s taken on water, lilting and plunging. If we thought the letter and memo were broad, hold onto your seats for what should be the teardown.
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