New York Rangers: Five storylines that will change by game 20

The start to the 2017-2018 season has been less than kind to the New York Rangers. But early season trends rarely indicate where a team will end up.

The Rangers are struggling, there is no doubt about that. They are also six games into the season, no denying that either. Their sole victory this year came in a shutout victory of the Montreal Canadiens. Outside of that the Rangers have been victimized by a of couple playoff contenders and a couple teams who they rarely lose to.

It certainly isn’t time to panic. But, maybe it’s time to take a look at what is causing the problems for the New York Rangers. Save for a game goaltending has been very solid. The power play looks good for the first time in forever. However, the offense as a whole is poor and their have been more than a few questionable lineup decisions.

With everything that’s going on, change is bound to occur for the New York Rangers. If it doesn’t, this team will under achieve in the basement of the Metropolitan Division. Here are five trends that will change a quarter of the way through the season.

Back of the pack

Currently the Rangers sit dead last in the Metropolitan Division standings. Through six games they have two points. They are six points back of first place and are tied for the most games played in the league so far this season. None of that matters.

The Rangers are far too talented a group to be last in the division by the time game number 20 roles around. In fact, I would be surprised if the Rangers weren’t jousting for a wild card spot by that time of the season. The fact remains that the product on the ice can and should be a whole lot better. It may be taking a little longer than people would have liked, but there isn’t any reason to believe that the Rangers core can’t come together and start winning games.

If you go back to the 2013-2014 season, the Rangers started out 3-7 in their first 10 games. That same year they went on to play in the Stanley Cup. A year later in 2014-2015 New York started a mediocre 7-7-4 and ended up one win away from back to back Stanley Cup appearances. The Rangers have been used to slow starts and their two most memorable seasons in recent history have been the bi-product of starts much like the one seen this year, that just won’t continue.

Confuse-D

In a word, the selection of defensive pairings this season has been, questionable. Ryan McDonagh has been paired with Kevin Shattenkirk, Marc Staal and Nick Holden. The Rangers best all around defenseman has been limited due to the fact that he has been paired with mostly third-pair defenseman. It will get figured out.

Alain Vigneault has come under fire for many of his coaching decisions and the slow start to the season isn’t cooling his seat in New York. However, I think the defense will get figured out. The top  two pairings should be McDonagh paired with Shattenkirk and Brady Skjei paired with Brendan Smith. It is so painfully obvious that even Vigneault, who may choose to deploy a fork over a spoon when eating cereal, will figure this one out.

It’s as simple as giving your best players the majority of the ice time and keeping your best players together. The experiment to try and make all three Rangers defensive pairings solid will be over. If they can run with one of the strongest top four in the league, they can get by with patchwork for the third pairing. As stubborn as Vigneault can be, this trend will change.

No goals

In six games so far, the Rangers have totaled: 2,5,2,1,1 and 2 goals. They sit 27th in the league with 2.2 goals per game. Last season, the Rangers had 3.09 goals per game, the fourth best total in the league. There hasn’t been much turnover on the roster and the team is much better than 2.2 goals per game.

Mika Zibanejad has been one of the only bright spots offensively for the team with five goals in six games. Kevin Shattenkirk has been solid offensively as well with five points in those six games. Outside of that the offense has been non-existent. With Kevin Hayes, Chris Kreider, J.T. Miller, Mats Zuccarello, Rick Nash and more on the roster, the offensive drought won’t continue.

The Rangers have totaled 31 shots or more in all but one game. They have run in to a couple of great goaltending performances and bounces haven’t gone their way early on. To put the shot totals in perspective, in 2015-2016 the Rangers started the season at 16-3-2. In those 21 games, New York totaled more than 31 shots just four times. However, they scored three goals or more in 14 of those 21 games. That trend didn’t continue and New York went on to lose to the Penguins in five games in the first round of the playoffs.

It wouldn’t be shocking if the Rangers exploded in the next game or two with four and five goal outbursts. The team is capable of just that and if a few fluky goals go in, suddenly the outlook is a lot more positive.

Who’s number one?

The Rangers came in to the season without a clear cut number one center. It seems that they were confident the team could be a cup contender without that and it would be an internal fix. That thinking will change soon.

While the Rangers are fully capable of making the playoffs with the team that they have on the ice right now, they aren’t a cup contender without an elite force down the middle. It has been the recent trend with all Stanley Cup winners: an elite center. Pittsburgh has two in Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. The Blackhawks have Jonathan Toews. The Los Angeles Kings have Anze Kopitar. Currently the Rangers have Zibanejad and Hayes, that won’t cut it.

I don’t believe a trade will happen soon, but the Rangers will start to realize that when a number one center on the team isn’t emerging, they will have to get one to make the season a success. New York seems to have fixed their power play issues, which have plagued them for nearly 10 seasons. However, if they don’t acquire a number one center, this season is setting up to be a one and done run in the playoffs.