New York Rangers: The team’s Christmas List

The New York Rangers are right in the thick of the Metropolitan Division playoff race. The team still needs to sure things up to make the playoffs.

The Rangers are 14-4-2 in there last 20 games and in fourth place in the Metropolitan Division. The team has continued to find a way to win, even if it isn’t pretty. They’re consistently outshot yet they still have had a strong six weeks.

They have several holes to fill and any player of substance will cost an arm and a leg. This means that fixes to the lineup’s issues will have to be based on strategy and scheme, not personnel.

So we took our best guess as to what the Rangers asked Santa for on their Christmas list.

The Rangers captain is stuck between a rock and a hard place. He hasn’t had a dependable defensive partner in years.

Ryan McDonagh is one of the best defensemen in the entire NHL. He plays a well rounded two-way game that has never come totally into focus. His offensive ability comes in flashes, the best of it came during the 2013-2014 postseason when he had 17 points in 25 games. That entire season McDonagh was attached at the hip to Dan Girardi.

Following Girardi’s slow erosion from reliable partner to defensive liability, McDonagh was forced to cover for his partner. The Minnesota native has been paired with Nick Holden this season and it’s been more of the same. Holden continually makes befuddling decisions with the puck on his stick and it’s hurting McDonagh’s game. McDonagh cannot flex his offensive skills and pinch up because Holden is such a liability to cause an odd-man rush.

A defensive partner for McDonagh is currently partnered with Brady Skjei. Give the man what he wants, play Kevin Shattenkirk with the Rangers captain. Shattenkirk is the type of offensively gifted partner that can drive possession and create chances for everyone on the ice. Shattenkirk has played with McDonagh during the Olympics and it’d do the Rangers well to bring it to Madison Square Garden.

The Russian winger is a little more than a third of the way through his breakout season.

Pavel Buchnevich is blossoming into the elite goal scorer that he showed in spurts last season. Thankfully, this year, Buchnevich has not mired in the bottom six or even worse the press box. The winger has 24 points in 35 games, four more than he had all of last season in fewer games. The consistent power play time and good linemates have paid off tenfold.

Putting Buchnevich with fellow possession drivers Chris Kreider and Mika Zibenajad has kept the Rangers offense afloat. The three have combined for 26 points on the power play as the top unit for the team. Kreider and Buchnevich have developed a special rapport that made David Desharnais passable in Zibanejad’s absence.

However, Buchnevich still gets lost on the bench late in the game. Buchnevich averages 14th for the Rangers in terms of average ice time per game. He checks in at 14:43, just ahead of Jesper Fast and Michael Grabner. This is an easy fix, Buchnevich already plays on the power play, don’t separate him from his linemates late in the game.

Giving Buchnevich ice time when the game hangs in the balance has two benefits. First, he’s a good offensive player, the more ice time he gets, the more chances he has to use his wicked shot. He also gets to learn and for a young player like Buchnevich, learning is the most important thing he can do.

The Rangers are starved for a third center, there’s one in Hartford pining at the chance to get back to the show.

Filip Chytil had less than 13 minutes of regular season ice time through two games to make an impression. This was confounding because of how well he played in the pre-season. In the exhibition games, he looked like the “Czech Auston Matthews.”

The Rangers are currently juggling between J.T Miller and David Desharnais for a third center. Miller is better suited to play on the wing, he’s serviceable as a center, but it takes away from what makes him a dangerous scorer. When on the wing, he has less defensive responsibility and can create more freely than he can at center.

David Desharnais is something of an enigma. He continues to build towards a career high in points this season but does it off the backs of who he plays with. Filling in for Mika Zibanejad, he’s had the luxury of playing with Kreider and Buchnevich while getting favorable zone starts. So he’s artificially producing points in a great situation. This takes away from other, more dynamic players.

Putting Filip Chytil into the lineup and giving him favorable zone starts with good linemates has a much higher ceiling. The 18-year-old has game-breaking potential that the Rangers haven’t had since Jaromir Jagr was on the team. Calling the young center up to the NHL in the heat of playoff race will do wonders for his development.

The New York Rangers have had next to no power play production since the end of November. They are six for their last 44 (13 percent) with the extra man over the last near month-and-a-half.

Now with Mika Zibanejad back in the fold, the power play should get a little bit better as he gets re-acclimated to the lineup over the next few weeks. But the ineptitude of the man advantage cost them the Toronto Maple Leafs game, as they weren’t able to tally a goal with a 5-on-3 advantage. It also hurt them in the Devils game–although they had no business winning that game anyway.

If the team wants to get back on track in the new year, they need to get back up to speed on the power play. They need to go back to the drawing board and come up with a scheme that can replicate the unit’s early-season success.

The Rangers Head coach is on the verge of a lost season, the team looks undisciplined and unprepared to play on a nightly basis.

I am running out of bad words to scream at Vigneault through my television. Every night he does something else that makes you scratch your head. Why is Nick Holden on a pair with Ryan McDonagh every night? Why does he deploy Marc Staal down a goal with under three minutes to go?

Vigneault also likes to bench certain players after they make a singular mistake. But when it’s one of his ‘guys,’ they can make as many mistakes as they’d like and never see one less second of ice time. In fact, that might even be a reason for them to get more ice time!

Next: Henrik Lundqvist is the best Ranger ever

I can’t stand this guy anymore, as the wins keep masking his inefficiencies to those who analyze this team in a lazy manner. I would really like Santa to bring him a brain this Christmas, but I know that’s asking for a lot.