New York Rangers: Five Thoughts Through 70 Games

Every 10 games, Blue Line Station takes a look at what’s happened. Let’s take a look at how the New York Rangers look through 70 games played.

1. The New York Rangers went 5-5 in their last ten games, owning a -2 goal differential. In the ten game stretch prior, New York went 8-2-1, with a +6 goal differential. This can be attributed to numerous factors, including the Rangers losing their fair share of two+goal losses, but failing to put away other teams in the same regard.

Additionally, the Rangers lost Michael Grabner, Jesper Fast, and Rick Nash to injuries, removing their only advantage over opposing teams. For the Rangers to be an elite team, their offense has to be better than every team they face.

The elite offense cancels out the horrendous defense, while the goaltending should be an even matchup or better on the Rangers’ side.

2. It appears as of now that the Rangers are all but guaranteed the 7th seed in the Eastern Conference. In the old playoff format they would be the 5 seed, matching up with the Columbus Blue Jackets. However in that format they would not be set up with an Atlantic team in the second round to make matters easier for them, but instead whoever fits based on the results of the first round.

I find it fascinating that the purpose of the new playoff format is to manufacture rivalries. In what way is the NHL doing this? Pittsburgh-Washington is already a rivalry. Columbus-Pittsburgh is already a rivalry. It’s doubling down on rivalries that already exist. If the Rangers were to play the Blue Jackets, however, there may be a new rivalry created.

Rick Nash vs. his old team, John Tortorella vs. his old team, Metropolitan success vs. Metropolitan newbies, the storylines write themselves. But the NHL prefers to take matters into their own hands. How disappointing.

3. The next question becomes who would you rather see in the playoffs: Montreal, or Ottawa? While Montreal leads the Atlantic Division by two points, Ottawa is firing on all cylinders to catch up. I’d prefer to see Ottawa in the first round.

Adding Alex Burrows and Viktor Stalberg did not fix the Senators’ depth woes. Defensively, Ottawa is sound, but does not scare away teams. While Craig Anderson is having a fantastic season, he is not Carey Price.

Additionally, facing Ottawa in the first round means the Boston Bruins meet Montreal in the first round as well. A Boston-Montreal matchup could result in the two teams pummeling each other into being too gassed to win a second round match-up. Everything comes up Rangers.

4. Everyone knows how I feel about Alain Vigneault at this point, but the biggest question is why he got an extension. Say the Rangers lose in the first round. What reactionary move will the team make? They won’t fire a coach they just extended, so who gets the blame? Does Dan Girardi count?

Vigneault did nothing this season to earn an extension. The Rangers played to potential, but systematic issues have reigned prevalent throughout the season. Ryan McDonagh often speaks of confusion and letting other teams dictate play in postgame press conferences. It’s the coaches job to stop that.

Finally, Vigneault put Tanner Glass on the ice down a goal with under a minute left against the Carolina Hurricanes. In no way is that acceptable, and even the greatest of Tanner Glass fans would admit that isn’t his role.

Claude Julien was canned in Boston for growing stale and running out of buttons to push. Vigneault hasn’t been around nearly as long, but it appears he’s suffering from the same problem. Jeff Gorton either has to give him only effective options, or fire Vigneault. Otherwise, he’s part of the problem as well.

5. Antti Raanta will be in net until Henrik Lundqvist returns from injury. I have two thoughts here. 1, it’s unacceptable that Lunqvist played the remainder of the game after getting injured in the first period. It’s brave and tough and whatever other buzz word you want to use to praise masculinity, but it’s also moronic and putting the team in a tougher spot.

What if Lundqvist did further damage to the injury and had to miss the playoffs? What if this issue lingers because it didn’t receive immediate treatment? Staying in a game while injured is not indicative of toughness. It’s indicative of misunderstanding how to provide maximum value to your team. Of course if it was the Rangers’ decision, that makes it even worse. Manage your asset.

Secondly, here’s how I would deploy Antti Raanta and Magnus Hellberg for the next couple of weeks:

3/17 vs. FLA and 3/18 vs. MIN- Antti Raanta

3/21 vs. NJD- Magnus Hellberg
3/22 vs. NYI- Raanta

3/25 vs. LAK- Raanta
3/26 vs. ANA- Hellberg

Next: Five Thoughts Through 60 Games

This gets the Rangers a look at Hellberg, doesn’t fatigue Raanta too much, and matches Hellberg with the inferior New Jersey Devils for one matchup. Realistically any set-up is fine, but Hellberg must get the Devils game.

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