New York Rangers: Latest Skid a Reason to Be Slightly Concerned

The New York Rangers have not played well the last few games but they are still in first place. The Rangers have exceeded all expectations that were established in the preseason because this was a team that was widely thought to be the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference.

The notion of the Rangers being in the Presidents' Trophy picture would have been greeted with laughter.

Nonetheless, despite the fact the Rangers have exceeded expectations, there is no excuse for their play as of late. All year it was widely known that the Blueshirts were a team that relied on elite goaltending and a stellar defense. Up to this point Henrik Lundqvist has played great and the defense was playing solid.

However, the recent losses against the New York Islanders, New Jersey Devils and Ottawa Senators have shared characteristics. In each game, the Rangers defense has made lazy mistakes. They committed turnovers in their own zone, wayward cross ice passes and lazy attempts to clear the puck out of the zone by throwing it towards the middle of the ice.

The second characteristic has been an ineptness when it comes to scoring goals. Against the Devils, the Rangers scored one goal and against the Senators, Ryan Callahan recorded a lone goal. When your team can not score goals, everything else is irrelevant. To win games, scoring more than one goal is a prerequisite for success.

Losing a game by a score of 2-1,3-1 or 4-1 cannot be justified by citing poor defensive play.

If the Rangers were burying chances early, the entire complexion of a game could be modified.

Against the Devils, Derek Stepan failed to tuck the puck in an open net and he failed to do the same against the Senators. In both situations the Rangers lost momentum and fell behind.

During this recent skid, marquee free agent Brad Richards has been a scapegoat. Most of this criticism cites how Richards is overpaid and how he was brought in to fix the offense and power play. The fanbase is very fickle in the treatment of star players but lets take a look at some cold, hard facts before throwing Brad under the bus.

Here are some players who recently signed a big contract.

Ville Leino

• 30 career goals
• 43 career assists
• 73 career points

Cap Hit of $4,500,000 for next six years.

Those are the numbers that earned Leino a mega contract.

Ales Hemsky 

• 119 career goals
• 305 career assists
• 424 points

Cap Hit $5,000,000 for next two years.

Mikhail Grabovski

• 83 career goals
• 114 career assists
• 197 career points

Cap hit of $5,500,000 for next five years.

Brandon Dubinsky

 Enough has been said about his lack of scoring so I won't beat a dead horse.

I could go on and on with players that are overpaid but you should get the point. Look at those cap hits compared to Richards. He earned every bit of the money with his résumé and took less money to come to New York. To judge him in his first year is ludicrous. The market for centres this year and last year were very slim so the Rangers were smart to address that need. 

Jaromir Jagr and Marian Gaborik were booed when they faltered but did they turn it around? Yes they did and went on to have great performances.

If you look at Richards' history of consistent performance, you will see he had skilled players like

• Fredrik Modin
• Martin St.Louis
• Cory Stillman
• Loui Eriksson
• James Neal
• Jamie Benn

on his wing. You can't say that it isn't a huge adjustment to be playing with a revolving door of Dubinsky, Hagelin, Callahan, etc. There is a learning curve to the team, the city and the style of play.

It sounds stupid, but picture yourself at a new school, job, home, community, etc. Would you want to be judged on how you reacted in the first portion of it? 

Richards is proven—he's won a Cup and a Conn Smythe. He took less money to come play here. He has been a vital role model to Stepan, Hagelin and Del Zotto and this is year one. He saw the youth and wanted to mentor them. That is valuable stuff that will benefit this team long after Richards is gone.

At the end of the day, the Rangers have to turn this around. At this time of the year the fans should not panic or start throwing players under the bus.

The Rangers have a great opportunity against the Blackhawks Friday night so keep the faith. The road to the playoffs is never an easy one so be glad the Rangers are encountering the bumps now instead of during the first round.

Tom Urtz Jr. is an NHL Featured Columnist. For NHL news, updates and alerts about players: