New York Rangers: Five Predictions for the New Year

The New York Rangers have 42 games remaining in a confusing season. The team cannot find any consistency from game to game and its befuddling.

The Rangers are a team performing below expectations. The team is much more talented than their record would indicate. They’re six points behind the first place New Jersey Devils with a game in hand.

The Metropolitan Division will come down to the final game of the season. Nine points are all that separates the seventh place Penguins from the aforementioned Devils. The Rangers can hang with any team in the division on any given night but they aren’t impressive doing it.

The dynamic offense and flashy power play from earlier in the season have gone dry. The defense is leaky and struggles to suppress or generate shots. This is a recipe for a perpetually mediocre team that is not a serious contender.

Here are five predictions for the final 42 games of the Rangers season.

The sole consistent bright spot on the team is Henrik Lundqvist. The goalie’s effort age 35 is superhuman.

Words don’t do Lundqvist’s greatness justice. He’s one of the best to ever play the position and the heart and soul of the team. As Lundqvist goes the Rangers go. The team turned their season around when Lundqvist corrected his early-season woes.

The goaltender won the only Vezina trophy of his career in 2011 when he posted 1.97 goals against average and a .930 save percentage. Those were both career bests for Lundqvist on a team that finished second in the entire NHL.

This year, he’s kept a bad team afloat. It’s no small feat that he’s propping up a team that surrenders more shots than they take. Lundqvist is showing no signs of age and will continue to carry the team in the second half. The team’s playoff chances are firmly on the goaltender’s shoulders and he will not fail them.

Lundqvist has dragged worst teams than this years to the playoffs before. This year, his hard work will get him a second Vezina trophy for his mantle.

Chris Kreider was diagnosed with a blood clot during the buildup to the Winter Classic.

The Rangers are in dire straits for offensive output. Kreider was one of their best wingers and a vital part of the power play. A blood clot isn’t like pulling a muscle or breaking bone, it’s a different type of recovery process.

The Massachusetts native will not return to the team this season. Risking one of their best player’s long-term health in a mediocre season is bad management. This year’s team is not a serious contender and adding even a healthy Kreider will not change that.

The team would be better served by having Kreider take his time to come back. The team’s approach to the upcoming trade deadline (more on that later) will give more clarity to the long-term plan.

Having a healthy Kreider is crucial to a successful 2018-2019 season. Playing the long game is smart business, so he won’t play again this season.

Marc Staal has been a member of the New York Rangers for ten years, it’s coming to an end.

The Rangers have a porous defense littered with misfit toys. Staal is a lingering relic of the NHL from five years ago. He is a slow bad on offense defenseman who struggles to keep up with the speed of the league.

The contract he signed four years ago was a bad deal when it was signed and it’s even worse now. The team would be better served by buying him out and sending him on his way. He was a solid player during one of the most successful periods of Rangers hockey. However, he is holding the growth of the team back.

Gearing up for the future is the best course of action for the remainder of this season and off-season. Getting a younger defenseman who can contribute in the offensive zone is paramount to fixing the leaky defense.

Buying out Staal will hurt like it did when the team bought out Dan Girardi. Like Staal, Girardi was a homegrown player who had been through the battles. This is what is best for the team, buying out Staal sets the Rangers up better for next season.

The Rangers are good enough to make the playoffs but not good enough to get anywhere.

The flawed team that is laboring along will claw their way into the postseason. Lundqvist is simply too good, that is the argument for why they will get there. It always has been true, but this year, in particular, is a reversion to the teams from earlier in his career. The Rangers prior to 2011 were never serious contenders but got into the tournament.

A first-round matchup with either the Tampa Bay Lightning or Toronto Maple Leafs would be a bloodbath. Both of those teams are blistering fast and make the Rangers look like a team in a time warp. The team can’t trust three of their six defensemen and against dynamic offenses, they’d be exposed.

Should the Rangers get one of the divisional playoff slots they would face a familiar face. All of the teams in the Metropolitan Division are talented, even the last place Flyers boast a considerable amount of talent. The Rangers in a first-round series against the Islanders, Devils, Blue Jackets or Capitals would be closer, but still a tall order.