New York Rangers Need Leaders To Step Up

Sure the New York Rangers are off to a great start, despite the no effort loss Wednesday night to the Buffalo Sabres.  They are winning with speed, grit, and energy.  Not to mention solid goal tending by the King, Henrik Lundqvist.

Dubinsky and Voros have had a very hot start, Voros being a total surprise and filling the role of Avery, but without all the antics.  And Dubinksy just continues to show he is a solid player with the future of being a star and leader for this team in the future. 

The thing is right now he is just the young kid that is contributing and that the Blue shirts have a good core of leaders on this team, and most of them aren't contributing.

First off Chris Drury is off to a very slow start once again and while we all know his toughness and grit on the ice, the Rangers did expect him to produce offensively more than he has.  He wasn't given the "C" because of his stats, but it would be nice if we got to see more of the Drury who played in Buffalo before he signed his five year deal with the Rangers.

Next is Markus Naslund who is coming off two very sub par seasons with the Canucks.  He came into this season in great shape and is really looking forward to reviving his career with the team.  The thing is he has looked lost at times playing with Gomez and Drury and seems to float a lot. 

Since coming home from the NHL opening season in Prague, Naslund hasn't had great offensive chances and has been slow getting back into his own zone.  He has to start showing more of an effort on for-check and the back check.  He needs to start taking the puck and going to the net on his own like he used to in his prime.  Nobody is asking for a 30 goal season, but he should hit the 20 mark and have a huge impact on this team.

Scott Gomez has been very good despite playing with a form of the flu.  He is skating with new guys again this year and well, is doing his best trying to set these guys up.  The best thing for Gomez is to have Drury switch with Zheredev and give Gomez a guy who can absolutely snipe.  Also Drury could fit in wit the toughness and grit that Dubinksy and Voros give out. 

Another thing the Rangers can do is put Zheredev in the top line with Gomez and Naslund, but put Drury on third line with Prucha and Korpikoski, giving Drury the speed and snipers he can use and also putting him back at his main position.  Callahan would move up to play on the Dubinksy line and he would fit in with that North American style hockey.

The defense has been very good. Redden has played alright, but I would like to see a lot more from him and Rozsival.  They both are great offensive players, but need to be more sturdy in the defensive zone.  Also, I am waiting for Marc Staal to become the stud that he's projected to be. 

However, most of the trouble goes unnoticed for the Rangers' defensemen due to the outstanding goalie behind them.  He is the one leader that his stepping up. Now he needs the others to do the same.