The New York Rangers head into Monday night’s game against the Los Angeles Kings having lost two in a row. In each game, New York rallied but was unable to pick up the win. Thursday, the Blueshirts tied the game against the Maple Leafs at four only to give up a goal with 26 seconds remaining. Saturday, New York started slow, falling behind Ottawa, and were never able to catch up. They pulled within a goal in the third but surrendered a pair of empty-net goals to lose 7-4 to the Senators.
What commonalities did we see in both losses?
1) Dylan Garand may have hit a bit of a wall. He has certainly been left out to dry by his defense. While that has been the case, evidenced by the number of high-danger chances against in both contests, that doesn’t tell the whole story.
Garand has been through an emotional and physical ringer the past few weeks, and the toll of each may have caught up to him. He went from thinking he made the team to waivers to Hartford to New York and then to starting. Plus not on the starting roster, but playing in every game since Igor Shesterkin was injured. Garand has not been the cause of the losses, though he certainly can use a blow.
Joonas Korpisalo remains sidelined, though it appears he has begun skating. With Korpisalo sidelined, New York clearly didn’t trust Spencer Martin between the pipes, resulting in Garand playing daily. To remediate this, the Blueshirts signed James Reimer, first to an ATO. After his shutout for the Wolf Pack, the Blueshirts released Reimer from his ATO, signing him to a one-year deal for $$850K.
Reimer is nothing special, but he is a solid second goalie, posting a 7-4-2 mark with an .886 save percentage last season for Ottawa. My concern is that when Korpisalo comes back, for the Rangers dare try and send Garand down – which would require waivers – and go with Korpisalo and Reimer? I shudder at the thought, but nothing would shock me.
2) Braden Schneider continues to struggle. Schneider has yet to play as well as he did after his promotion and playoff run that first year. After last season, most thought New York could move on from him. Instead, he was signed to a one-year deal worth $5.5 million. Currently, that money and roster spot look to be wasted.
Schneider has been brutal. Thursday and Saturday, he was either beaten wide or muscled off the puck, leading to high-danger scoring chances and goals against. His pairing with Alberts Smits has certainly not provided New York with the level of defense hoped for out of that duo.
The Rangers sent down Matthew Robertson on Sunday. I would have preferred he received a look in place of either Schneider or Smits; the latter possibly benefiting from a game or two in the press box so he can recalibrate. Keeping Scott Morrow as the seventh d-man doesn’t help his development, but he won’t be sent down, as he would require waivers off, which he would be claimed. Since this is the case, give him a game or two and see what he can do.
3) Oliver Bjorkstrand-Pavel Dorofeyev: Bjorkstrand started the season on the second line, then was dropped to the fourth line. He didn’t allow his disappointment in the demotion to impact his game, as he worked his way back up to the third line. Saturday, that changed again.
Doro was Rangers GM Chris Drury’s shiny draft-day acquisition, surrendering a pair of first-round picks to acquire the scoring winger, then inking him to a seven-year, $77 million deal. The first big question was which line he would skate. Would he move Gabe Perreault off the first line, maybe Alexis Lafreniere? Dorofeyev has bounced between a few lines, but recently was locked into the second line.
His placement there changed Saturday. Coach Mike Sullivan- in an attempt to jumpstart the team – moved Bjorkstrand up to the second line with JT Miller and Tye Kartye, sliding Bjorkstrand down to play with Noah Laba and Will Cuylle. The change helped both players, as the newly constituted second line was dominant while on the ice while Dotofeyev scored late in the loss.
I don’t care that he’s an $11 million third-line winger. To me, that is a lazy argument. We all want and expect him to be top six. But if he meshes with Laba and Cuylle and that trio can be dominant, same with the first two lines, who cares. I am mildly concerned Perreault has hit a wall and could see a change happening if this persists a bit longer, moving Dorofeyev back up to the first line. But my guess is that Sullivan lets this play out a bit longer before he considers a change.
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