Bleacher Report - New York Rangers

Marian Gaborik Can't Carry the Rangers by Himself

Rob Cristino — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:01:03 -0500

Who would’ve thought that the New York Rangers would finally have a goal scorer that can actually score goals?

Rangers General Manager Glen Sather has been known to make plenty of poor decisions when it comes to signing big name free agents, but despite his poor track record, it appears he finally got it right looking in the direction of superstar Marian Gaborik .

Though Gaborik is always a risk, thanks to his very fragile past, he has been worth the high gamble (five-year deal, worth $37.5 million). Gaborik has skated in all but two games this season and has been a huge contributor whenever he is on the ice.He has been exactly as advertised, a player with a lightning-quick shot who can score goals in the blink of an eye.

Gaborik has scored 15 goals and has contributed 12 assists for a team high 27 points. He shares the league lead in goals with Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals.

Gaborik's debut season in New York has been a success (so far), but it’s becoming more and more evident that the Rangers need much more offense if they are to be a competitive team in the NHL.

Though Gaborik makes a difference every game, he can’t continue to be the only true goal scorer for the Rangers. Someone else needs to step up and help contribute to the team because right now, it’s becoming a one man show...similar to the time he spent with the Minnesota Wild.

The Rangers finally have that desperately needed goal scorer in Gaborik, but now lack a true supporting cast. Take a look at all of the successful teams in the league, just about every team has at least two guys who can get it done on a consistent basis.

Unfortunately, the Rangers still have a few missing pieces to this 1,000 piece puzzle.

Yes, Vinny Prospal has been great this season and has been very impressive with his on-ice vision. After all, he leads the team in assists with 16 helpers, but he is a playmaker not a goal scorer. He has helped make things happen offensively, but at times it can be tough when Gaborik is the only forward scoring on a consistent basis.

What about Ales Kotalik, who is currently third on the team with 17 points? Kotalik is a huge difference on the power play, leading the team in power play points, but there's the problem.

Of Kotalik’s 17 total points on the season, 13 have come from the power play, leaving just four points during even strength. Though it's nice to see the power play get more chances, Kotalik must improve his overall game by being more of a complete player.

It seems we are all on repeat, singing the same tired tune that the Rangers need more offense.

With Brandon Dubinsky out with an injury, the Rangers have just four players with ten points or more in their lineup through 21 games. After looking at an offensively potent team like the Capitals who have eight players with ten or more points, that’s certainly a big department to lack in.

The Capitals disposed of this offensively challenged Rangers team with a 4-2 win at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night, where the only two goals for New York came from the stick of Gaborik.

The Capitals had four different goal scorers, including Brian Pothier’s empty netter, which ultimately sealed the win for Washington.

Gaborik almost matched Washington goal-for-goal, but eventually ran out of steam as a late Rangers’ turnover halted what was turning into a third period rally.

Now the Rangers fall to 11-9-1 and will have three days off to think about their latest loss, before hosting the Florida Panthers and Columbus Blue Jackets as part of their three-game homestand.

Can the Rangers use games against the Panthers and Blue Jackets to get back on track? Will Rangers fans see another player step up his game before this team falls further down in the Eastern Conference Standings?

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New York Rangers Drop from the Top, but How Far Will They Fall?

Eric LaForge — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:09:33 -0500

In what was expected by some, and a complete shock to others, the Rangers climbed to the top of the Eastern Conference at the beginning of the season. But after what was a great start, the Rangers have begun to slow down in their performance.

Since the seven-game winning streak in October, New York has gone 4-7. The question is, why? Fans want to know if this is a slump or if the beginning of the season was a fluke.

Early Schedule

During the early season, the Rangers had a noticeably easier schedule. They still played a few tough teams, but for the most part, they played a lot of weak ones.

During the winning streak, the Rangers played Toronto twice, Anaheim once and Ottawa. All of these teams have losing records, so wins don’t mean a lot. However, they also played Washington and New Jersey, two of the other top teams in the Eastern Conference.

The turning point came in a game against San Jose, when they lost 7-3. It looks like this had a pretty bad effect on the team because they ended up dropping their next two games, as well (to New Jersey and the OT loss to Montreal).

After that three-game losing streak, they went 4-4 with a close 1-0 win over Boston and a 3-1 loss over the very defensive Calgary.

Inconsistency

The best way to sum up the Rangers this season is inconsistent. At the beginning, they were a great team with a lot of potential. Their players were scoring goals and Lundqvist was stopping everything.

Now, it looks like they're starting to cool off and may be going into a slump. I know that Ranger fans are hoping it’s a slump and that they can start winning more games as the season goes on.

If the Rangers are playing like they will the rest of the year, then they will have a hard time making the playoffs and may not be able to get past the first round if they do.

My personal feeling is that it’s a little bit of both. I think that the beginning of the season was a little bit of a fluke, but their recent play has been a little bit of a slump.

I think that we’ll start to see the Rangers play better as the season rolls on, but not as well as they played at the outset.

I say that because during their seven-game winning streak, they only allowed 12 goals. There was only one game where they allowed more than two. They did that while scoring 30 goals during the same seven games.

November has been, once again, inconsistent for the Rangers. In fact, I’m not even going to compare the goals-for and goals-against with the stats I talked about in the previous paragraph. There are some games where the Rangers score a lot of goals and some where they don’t. There are also games where they let a lot of goals in and others where they don’t.

Take their last game against Ottawa for example , this 2-1 shootout win comes two days after a 5-3 loss to the Thrashers.

Eventually, the team will become more consistent, but we may have to wait until December to see how well they are going to play. By the time mid-season rolls around, we should have a better idea of where the Rangers are going to finish.

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New York Rangers: Trying To Find an Identity

Rob Cristino — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:29:20 -0500

Who are the New York Rangers?

Through 20 games in this young 2009-10 season, the Rangers seem to be barely hanging on in the Atlantic Division with 23 points and are slowly dropping in the Eastern Conference Standings with an 11-8-1 record. In the last 10 games, the Rangers are just 4-5-1 and have dealt with major inconsistencies on both the offensive and defensive sides of the puck.

It’s certainly no time to panic, but it would be nice to know what type of team to expect out on the ice game after game.

As of right now, that remains a mystery.

Aside from the play of superstar Marian Gaborik, veterans Vinny Prospal and Ales Kotalik, along with the play of rookie defenseman Michael Del Zotto, the offensive capability of the Rangers is unknown.

The Rangers are simply not getting enough offensive contributions from the rest of the lineup, including captain Chris Drury (before he sustained a concussion on Nov. 7), Christopher Higgins, Ryan Callahan, Artem Anisimov, Enver Lisin, etc…

The Rangers are coming off a 2-1 shootout victory over the Ottawa Senators this past Saturday night at Scotiabank Place, the first shootout for New York this season, and it was Hartford call-up P.A. Parenteau who had the game-winning shootout goal, not one of the regular starters.

Though Prospal and Kotalik scored in the shootout, Gaborik, Lisin, Anisimov, and Higgins had each failed in their shootout attempts.

Gaborik leads this offensively struggling team with 25 points and remains the Rangers' most dangerous threat on the ice with 13 goals and 12 assists in 18 games played. Prospal is second on the team with 21 points, Kotalik has 17 points, and Del Zotto has been a pleasant surprise collecting 15 points.

As for the rest of the team, it's a roster full of struggles.

Brandon Dubinsky wasn't playing as well as everyone had hoped, but he at least contributed 10 points in 18 games before he broke his right hand on Nov. 7.

Ryan Callahan has played hard every night and was a big part of this past win in Ottawa, but even he has had troubles finding the back of the net. Callahan has just three goals and four assists in 20 games played.

The captain of the team, Drury, had just six points before sustaining a concussion, while veteran Christopher Higgins has only five points, continuing to struggle in his debut season in New York. Sean Avery has also lacked an edge in his game and seems afraid to play his normal agitator style of hockey, which the Rangers desperately need.

Like the offense, the defensive side of the spectrum is also a cause for concern.

With two rookie defensemen on the team and two veteran defensemen who played very poorly last year, the defense of the Rangers was a major question mark at the start of the 2009-10 season.

The Rangers' two best defensemen from last season, Marc Staal and Dan Girardi, have yet to play to their full potential this year and have been inconsistent at times. Both defensemen did have monster games against the Senators on the penalty kill, especially in the overtime period where they helped stop a 4-on-3 power play, so hopefully that's a sign of good things to come.

Wade Redden looks better this season (Plus/Minus rating of three), but he still hesitates with the puck and is far from reliable, while Michal Rozsival’s game has completely deteriorated thus far.

The two rookie defensemen, Del Zotto and Matt Gilroy continue to log heavy minutes and are only getting better with more experience in the league, but they still have much to learn. Gilroy leads the team with a Plus/Minus rating of seven.

Then there is Henrik Lundqvist, who is not without fault, but remains the backbone of this team. King Henrik made 35 saves against the Senators and stopped five Ottawa shooters during the shootout.

Lundqvist will continue to be the most important player on the Rangers and will likely contribute to another playoff appearance for New York, but where they go from there depends not only on how much Lundqvist's shoulders can carry the load, but also how much the rest of the team can contribute as well.

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