Resurrgent Rangers

NEW YORK – After a sluggish start to start their long home stand, the Rangers won the last 4, some in good fashion, some that were nail biters.   They started this latest streak by first beating the San Jose Sharks in convincing fashion 5-2 and then had to listen to Sharks player Joe Thornton comment that the Rangers were the softest team they had faced so far this year.   Gee Joe, guess you didn’t look at the scoreboard that night as your team got their butts kicked all over the ice.   One other note, the Rangers have always been successful against the Sharks through the years owning a 20-6-3 record against them since 1991-92.
 
They next faced the Ducks, who they had lost to in Sweden on their long season opening trip in the shootout 2-1.   This game was just as close and also went to the shootout but this time, the Rangers came out on top by the same 2-1 score.   This game featured a lot of scoring chances but they could never put anything other than 1 past Hiller until the aforementioned shootout.  
 
The game against Montreal was probably the best one they have played so far this year from start to finish.   They came out strong early, drew penalties and grabbed a 3 goal lead at the end of one period.   Although the Habs got 2 in the second, the backbreaker goal was scored by Richards late in the period which seemed to put the game back in the Rangers control.   They settled down in the third and despite allowing one more goal, they did come away with a 5-3 win headed into their final game of the home stand.
 
Their final game was against the Winnipeg Jets, who they had beaten already on their season opening trip.   Since Lundqvist had played the majority of the games, it was Biron who got the start and he was good when he needed to be as he stopped everything he faced in a 3-0 shutout which gave them a 4-1-1 record at home so far.  
 
The positives are that some players have come out of their slumber such as Callahan, who was awesome in all facets of the game; Stepan, who is playing better and better each game; Del Zotto – who seems to regaining confidence daily; Girardi, who is continuing to sacrifice his body blocking shots; Richards, who is fitting in more and more; and Gaborik, who looks rejuvenated this year as he already has 7 goals.   Of course you can’t forget about the Lundqvist-Biron goaltending tandem, which is one of the best in the game bar none.
 
One concerning issue is the lack of goals from Dubinsky, who has now gone 13 games without a goal.   For a guy who is making over $4 million a season, more is expected of him and he needs to step it up soon as it was expected that he would be a 25-30 goal man this season.   If he continues not to be able to score goals, his ice time may be diminished so that others who are playing better can help the team more.   The other issue is the Power Play which is still not doing enough to score goals.   Instead of just turning the offensive zone into a shooting gallery, they pass the puck around looking for that perfect shot which most of the time never comes and in the end, they usually waste the 2 minutes.  
 
Another thing that puzzled some people was the call up of Sean Avery from Connecticut last week since it was felt that he would never set foot on the Garden ice again.   After what he did last season only scoring 3 goals and not really being a huge help to the team, it was a big surprise to see him back.   They could have really used someone else besides him at this point since he has only seen about 5 minutes of ice time and really hasn’t had any impact on the games he’s been in so far.   The real need for this team is another scoring forward who could help take off some of the pressure on the top guys and give them multiple scoring lines.
 
There were things that can be improved going forward and things that seem to be working well already for the Rangers, but since they have only played 13 games, there still is time to see how things work out in the early part of the year.   A good measuring stick is to see where this team is after 20-25 games and look at the statistics both team and player to figure out if they will move up or down in the standings.   Until then, there just aren’t enough games played to really see how good or bad this team is.   So next time, the focus will be on the games that they will be playing over the next 2 weeks as well as a general evaluation of the team after what probably will be right around 20 games played.
  Howie.Sussman @prohockeynews.com