Bad Habits New York Rangers Stars Need to Drop in 2013-14

“Clean Slate, Grab It.”

That’s the motto incoming head coach Alain Vigneault has brought to the New York Rangers, as he looks to unchain the shackles former coach John Tortorella placed on the team.

Players who found a permanent home in Torts’ doghouse will have the opportunity to reaffirm themselves. Others, like Brad Richards, are simply just looking to forget the 2013 campaign altogether.

But Vigneault’s clean slate isn’t a free lunch. The players will have to seize the moment and improve their game to get in the new boss’ good graces. And there are quite a few things some of the more high-profile Rangers have to work on before they get there.

Get to the Net

Under Tortorella, the Rangers made a habit of playing to the outside in the offensive zone. What they have to do in 2013-14—and Vigneault knows it—is both generate more traffic in front of opposing teams' goalies and take the puck to the net hard.

It was astonishing that they hadn’t used such tactics under Tortorella, who stressed ugly, hard-working hockey. If taking the puck to the net and generating greasy goals isn’t ugly hockey, I don’t know what is.

But the good news is Vigneault sees the importance in such practices. The Rangers have some talent, and if they head to the net, good things will happen. This goes for bottom-six and top-line players alike; everybody needs to get their hands dirty.

Rick Nash is a guy who exemplifies this best. He’s at the top of his game when he heads to the net. Sure, he’s big and talented, but he’s a better player when he rushes the net. When he allowed himself to float on the boards he became much less effective.

More Energy on the Power play

The Rangers featured one of the league’s worst power-play units last season, and looking back, it’s not difficult to see why it was so terrible.

First off, as was already mentioned, the Rangers didn’t get to the net enough. They were too cute with the puck along the wall and when they exhausted their very limited options they just fired the puck at the net.

But another major contributor to the failures of last season’s power play was the lack of movement. On a power play it’s pretty simple, you have an extra player on the ice. You already know what the opposition is going to do: clog up the middle and block as many shots and passes as possible. So the only way you’re going to be able to create anything is if you pass and move, quickly. Get the PKers out of position and create time and space for goal scoring opportunities.

It’s not rocket science.

But it clearly was for Tortorella, who I personally think is largely to blame for the team’s PP failures in 2013. How can a coach of his pedigree not identify such a basic issue and correct it with simple antidotes?

Hopefully Vigneault promotes pass-and-move thinking on the power play so that the Rangers can score more goals, but also the players must realize on their own what they need to do.

Avoid Net-Front Collapsing

Under Tortorella, net-front collapsing wasn’t just a bad habit, it was a tactic.

He felt blocking shots “built character,” and in the process it would help keep pucks from reaching Henrik Lundqvist’s net. It definitely helped in that regard, but the collapsing mentality turned out to hurt the team more than it helped.

Collapsing became an automatic for the Rangers, offense and defense alike, and whenever the puck found its way deep in the Rangers end, the forwards and defensemen assumed their positions in the slot in anticipation for the opposition to commence firing.

But this allowed opponents to move the puck freely through the zone and create prime scoring opportunities. Playing defense is about eliminating an opponent’s time and space; just sitting in the slot awaiting an attempt at net means allowing opponents all the freedom they need to find a good shot.

In addition, the skaters crowding the slot made seeing the puck a lot more difficult for Lundqvist. It’s tough to make a save when four or five guys are blocking your view of the shooter and the puck. As a result, a lot of goals were scored that Lundqvist couldn’t even see.

This is another habit Vigneault is going to help his players break. With the more offensive philosophy AV is prepared to introduce, look for the wingers and defensemen to pressure higher on the boards and on the point in hopes that they can turn defense into offense quickly.

The only thing that could delay this transformation is the returning players falling back on their net-front collapsing habits. They have to make a conscious effort not to collapse.

Get Physical

In 2013 we saw a new brand of Rangers hockey, a much less physical one.

It was in 2011-12 that the team was considered one of the most difficult to play against in the league, and that had a lot to do with the team’s employment of sandpaper guys like Brandon Dubinsky, Brandon Prust and Ruslan Fedotenko.

But, for one reason or another, the trio did not return in 2013 and the team lost some of its edge. The 2013 Rangers were simply a softer team. Not only did they not really have the horses to be a physical team, but you also got the feeling Tortorella was moving away from that style of play.

In truth, the Rangers don’t really have to horses to bang heads in 2013-14, either, but that doesn’t mean they can’t or shouldn’t be a more physical team.

When you’re more physical, it becomes more difficult to play against you. Easy as that. You don’t need skull-crushers to be effective, you just have to impose yourself onto your opponent.

The Rangers have some good size, and even better skaters; if they were to focus on becoming more physical, they’d become one of the more intimidating outfits in the league.

In Vancouver, Vigneault featured both skill and grit. Players like Ryan Kesler, Chris Higgins, Mason Raymond, Max Lapierre and Zack Kassian brought both talent and physicality to the Canucks’ lineup. I’m sure the 52-year-old would like to bring some of that in-your-face intensity to Broadway.

But, again, it’s give and take, and the players need to break old habits.