Nash and teammates celebrate after taking 1-0 lead. Photo courtesy NHL.com
NEW YORK – After starting the season a miserable 3-7-2, with nine of those games coming at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers needed to string together some wins quick or the possibility of becoming “sellers” in the month of October was a possibility.
Coming into their tilt against the Vegas Golden Knights on October 31st, head coach Alain Vigneault was on the hot seat, arguably having his Rangers tenure decided by the end of that game. New York scored four 3rd period goals and won 6-4. All seemed safe for now.
After winning that game the blueshirts continued to win five more and were starting to become the team we all knew they could be. They went 12-3 from their match against Vegas to the beginning of December. Since then the team has resorted back to its opening season form, going 1-2-1, and they seem to be looking for direction.
This of course is no coincidence to losing their first line center Mika Zibanejad who got injured on November 24th and has been out since November 28th. All teams deal with injuries, but with New York so thin at center losing their top guy has exposed how weak they are and how valuable Zibanejad is to this team.
The power play has struggled mightily going 2-19 in seven games and half of those goals came from a terribly miss played puck by Hurricanes goalie Scott Darling which led to an empty net. His absence causes a harmful trickle down effect, including moving a normal healthy scratched David Desharnais up to first line (though he has done a better than expected job up front) as well as moving comfortable winger J.T Miller to third line center.
So the question is, where to go from here?
As it sits the Rangers are 16-12-3 and hold the last wild card spot with 35 points. They’re six points out of first place in the division with a game in hand and four points out of third place. By no means is this a “sell sell sell” moment for a team with a winning record, but after the back-to-back games they have vs the Kings tonight at home and at Boston on Saturday, we might know a lot more about this team.
It’s crazy to think about but in the Metropolitan division, every game you play this early is crucial to your playoff hopes. The seventh ranked team the Philadelphia Flyers have 33 points, just a game behind the Rangers.
If the Rangers win both games this weekend and the Islanders lose on Saturday and the Devils lose tonight, the Rangers would shoot up to third place. If they lose both and the Penguins and Flyers win on Saturday the Rangers could be brought down to seventh in the division and ninth in the conference. That’s how close the teams are in the Metro.
There’s still plenty of hockey left and when this team is on they’re almost unstoppable. The problem is their lack of consistency and glaring need for healthy centers. If they can hold the fort until Zibanejad comes back and the defense steps their game up they could be in real good shape to make a run. If this team starts to waver, we might have to face reality of departing with some of our favorite Rangers that almost seem like family.
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