New York Rangers: Lessons learned from the 2017-2018 season

The New York Rangers had a frustrating 2017-2018 season in which the team did not make the playoffs for the first time in eight years. Hopefully, the team’s front office learns something from this mess.

The Rangers were an outright disappointment this year. For a team expected to contend to finish with the eighth worst record in hockey, it means there were breakdowns at every single level of causation. The coaching staff overestimated the ability of the players, the players underperformed and the front office did not provide enough talent to win.

It is important that the organization learn from its mistakes to not end up in a cycle of mediocrity. At the beginning of the century, the Rangers were a perpetual laughing stock that featured retread coaches and players. Those teams did not make the playoffs for six whole seasons.

However, the team is in much better shape now to bounce back. First, the team has a progressive general manager who understands the direction the NHL is trending. Jeff Gorton’s roster decisions are a ray of hope in that they have a clear vision. As a whole, the direction is retooling and not rebuilding. The logic here is that as long as the team has Henrik Lundqvist, it cannot bottom out.

This season, the team was mired in mediocrity, lacked identity and struggled to get up for games. It seemed as if the players knew they had nothing to play around the beginning of February. The 6-1 loss to the Boston Bruins was a death knell to the Rangers season.

There is plenty learn from a season in which so much went wrong.

Defense is important

It should go without saying, but the Rangers underestimated the importance of defense. The organization felt comfortable with Ryan McDonagh, Kevin Shattenkirk, Brendan Smith, Brady Skjei, Tony DeAngelo and Marc Staal coming into the season. In theory, this should have been an improvement on the personnel from the year before. But, it was not to be, every single player played worse this year than the year prior.

The big problem with the team’s philosophy on defense stems from being spoiled for 13 years. The team has always used Lundqvist as a band-aid for the defense’s flaws and it was simply too much this year. The team was the worst in the entire league in Corsi For Percentage, the possession metric which measures the percentage of shots a team has. The Rangers averaged 42.9 % of the shots in a game.

This is why Lundqvist had more 40 save games this season than he had in his entire career combined before this year. This means that next year, the team will need to lessen the load if it wants to compete. A better defensive scheme that is better suited for the players the team has is the most immediate fix. A new head coach that can maximize the play of the defense will go a long way in improving the team’s performance.

Prospects have a higher ceiling

For the Rangers, the Alain Vigneault era was filled with low ceiling veterans. This year, the coach insisted on rolling with Paul Carey, David Desharnais and Cody McLeod instead of his young guys. For a team that is trying to contend, this makes sense in theory. If a coach knows what he has in his players, he can be prepared. This also limits the potential of how good the team can be.

Low ceiling guys have a roll on every single team. A lineup needs safe choices that won’t take too many risks. This was what Vigneault cited during his tenure for as to why he made certain choices. Every time McLeod was in the lineup, he took ice time away from someone who could learn something.

It was pointless of Vigneault to play Nick Holden for the first half of the season, especially in the role he was used. There was a lot more to gain from helping bring DeAngelo along at the NHL level. The organization invested a lot to acquire the first round pick and his development should be of the utmost importance.

Young players need direction

The Rangers were a young team coming into the season and are even younger now. Under Vigneault’s coaching philosophy, the players are supposed to police themselves. For a young team that didn’t have a ton of leadership, this led to bad habits that persisted all season.

On a nightly basis, the team was not ready to play at the start of the game. The team consistently surrendered a goal in the first five minutes of play. There were two levels of causation to this problem. Vigneault never corrected it because he simply expected the players to figure out they should be tight at the start of a game.

Then, there was the unpreparedness issue. The team was consistently sloppy in every phase of the game. In the defensive zone, defensemen made it common practice to drift over to the opposite side and leave the front of the net undefended. The defense’s lack of positional discipline hung Lundqvist out to dry.

Over in the offensive zone, the problems were a little more nuanced, but still in the same realm. The Rangers have some highly skilled players, however, none of them have the feel of when to shoot. Playmakers are obviously important and a driving force on any team, but someone does need to actually shoot the puck on net.

The Metropolitan Division is wide open

Excluding the buzz saw that is the two time defending Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins, no team in the Metropolitan Division is all that intimidating. The division was clustered all the way until the end and the Carolina Hurricanes, who finished sixth, were in the playoff race until the second to last week of the season.

This should encourage the front office that the Rangers are not too far away from competing even though they have holes. There is a formula in which the team does not splurge in free agency and still can compete next season.

The Washington Capitals have regressed with age and are facing serious cap crunch for the second straight offseason. The Philadelphia Flyers and Hurricanes are both plagued with terrible goaltending that limits their respective ceilings. The New York Islanders are in the worst shape of any team in the division and facing the reality of life without John Tavares. The New Jersey Devils and Columbus Blue Jackets are both good but not great teams.

Next: What went wrong this season: Brendan Smith

The point being, the Rangers can find a way to at least be in the playoff hunt next year. In fact, if the team did not get plagued with injuries this season, they might have made the playoffs anyway. But, if the climate stays the same, the front office should be licking their chops at a potential return to the postseason with a few moves.