New York Rangers Stock Market: Scoring surges and offensive droughts

Though the New York Rangers as a whole have hit a skid recently, and a few players have followed suit, others have been having personal success despite the squad’s struggles.

Record since 3/9/19: 1-3-1 (three points); 4-2 W vs. NJD, 3-2 OTL @ EDM, 4-1 L @ VAN, 5-1 L @ CGY, 5-2 L @ MIN

Record so far this season: 28-31-13 (69 points)

Standings: 26th in the NHL, 13th in the Eastern Conference, seventh in the Metropolitan Division

As expected, the New York Rangers are continuing to have a rough season. As of Monday, March 18th, they have lost ten of their last eleven games with their only win since February 23rd, a win against the New Jersey Devils on March 9.  Their last win before this streak also was against the Devils.

The team will ride a four-game losing streak into this week when they face the Detroit Red Wings at home on Tuesday, March 19th. The Rangers will then have three days off before they face the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday, March 23rd.

The 4-2 win against the Devils saw many Rangers having a great game. New York’s goals were scored by Ryan Strome from Kevin Shattenkirk and Vladislav Namestnikov, Libor Hajek from Chris Kreider and Strome, Namestnikov from Mika Zibanejad and Brady Skjei, and Strome from Namestnikov and Zibanejad.

In the 3-2 loss to the Edmonton Oilers, the Rangers’ tallies were courtesy of Brendan Lemieux from Shattenkirk and Brett Howden from Lemieux. When the losing streak continued in a 4-1 struggle against the Vancouver Canucks, the lone Blueshirts goal was scored by Pavel Buchnevich from Zibanejad and Tony DeAngelo.

When the Rangers dropped a Friday night contest to the Calgary Flames 5-1, their only goal of the night was from Neal Pionk with Strome getting the helper. Finally, in a 5-2 loss to the Minnesota Wild, New York’s goals were by Zibanejad from Shattenkirk and Buchnevich from DeAngelo and Skjei.

Although the last few games of this stretch saw the offense becoming more muted, a few individuals were able to find their own success throughout the past week or so. Unfortunately, some others saw their value decrease along with the team.

Down: Neal Pionk

Unfortunately for Neal Pionk, he has still yet to hit his stride this season. In his last five games, he has just one point, a goal assisted by Ryan Strome in the game against the Calgary Flames. This was his first point since February 24th,  an assist against the Washington Capitals.

Furthermore, the tally was his first goal since December 22nd, a game against the Toronto Maple Leafs he had both a goal and an assist in. Including that matchup against the Leafs, Pionk has only five points since December 22nd (30 games), two goals and three assists.

He was somewhat consistent earlier in the season and has seemed to drop off a bit since late December. Of course, many factors can go into this.

The young defenseman is juggled throughout the lineup quite frequently, between varying defensive partners and scattered healthy scratches. However, those healthy scratches have begun to die down, showing that Coach David Quinn trusts him more than other players.

That definitely means that now is Pionk’s time to prove himself, which he hasn’t done very well. His goal this week was his first point in nine games, and his first goal in 30.

Though this year is a larger sample size, and there’s still time left, he isn’t quite playing at the pace he was last year. Through 28 games during the 2017-2018 season, the blue-liner had 14 points (one goal and 13 assists), averaging 0.5 points per game.

Through 63 games this year, he has 22 points (six goals and 16 assists), averaging about 0.35 points per game. This could be a sophomore slump in some form or a struggle with a new coach, but, either way, Neal Pionk needs to find a way to step up his offensive play in order to become a staple on this team and develop as a well-rounded defenseman.

Up: Ryan Strome

As we’ve said before here on Blue Line Station, the New York Rangers show that they’ve already won the Ryan Strome-Ryan Spooner trade with the Edmonton Oilers a bit more every day. Strome had a huge week, continuing to break out of his shell and excel offensively.

Through 53 games with the Rangers so far this season, he has 24 points, made up of 12 goals and 12 assists. He is scoring at a 0.45 point per game pace, as opposed to the approximately 0.11 point per game pace he had been playing at in Edmonton to start the year.  At that pace, he will have his best offensive season since his sophomore year (2014-15) with the Islanders.

This week specifically, he’s had four points in his last five games (two goals and two assists). He even had a huge multi-point game against New Jersey, with two goals and an assist.

This furthers his recent hot streak as well, earning nine points (five goals and four assists) in his last 12 games and 13 points (six goals and seven assists) in his last 16 games. The Rangers recognized this accomplishment on Twitter earlier in the week.

In a rare turn of events, a “change of scenery” trade finally worked; Strome is quickly finding a niche in New York, and he’s not the only one benefitting from it. When Kevin Hayes and Mats Zuccarello were traded at last month’s NHL Trade Deadline, many Rangers’ fans worried that the team’s scoring would struggle.

While it has, obviously, with New York being outscored 19-10 this past week, the absence of former offensive juggernauts has allowed some new faces to step up. Rather than being aided by someone like Zuccarello, Mika Zibanejad is now setting up some of his plays by passing to Strome.

The 25-year-old is also becoming what some would call a “young veteran”, recording helpers on goals by potential future Rangers’ regulars like Libor Hajek and Neal Pionk. While it looks good from a leadership perspective and it’s helping some prospects cases, this is also a huge personal win for Strome.

When he was traded from the New York Islanders to the Oilers in a one-for-one deal in exchange for Jordan Eberle, no one thought he would ever recover. The trade was extremely one-sided, and he seemed to suffer a bit from it, not to mention having to enter the mess that’s currently taking the ice in Edmonton.

The trade to the Rangers helped Strome regain his footing a bit and re-establish himself as a solid middle-six player with more NHL experience than you’d think. I’d expect to see him playing on Broadway for a long time to come.

Down: Chris Kreider

Now, let’s get one thing straight; this isn’t a dig at Chris Kreider in any way, shape, or form. He’s been one of the New York Rangers’ best players this year, and it’s important to have bright sports like him in the midst of a season this bleak.

However, he has seemed to slow down a bit recently. In his last five games, he has just one point, an assist on Libor Hajek’s goal against the New Jersey Devils.

Looking back a bit further, Kreider only has five points in his last 14 games. He hasn’t gone through a dry spell like this yet this season, and it’s coming about a month after losing the team’s two best offensive players at the trade deadline, which is why the fanbase is noticing a bit more.

Now, there really isn’t much reason to worry about the forward; he’s still on pace to have one of his best seasons to date. He’s averaging 0.68 points per game, which is great on a team struggling this much with scoring.

If he continues at this pace, he’s projected to finish with about 56 points (approximately 30 goals and 26 assists), a career-high and his best campaign since earning 53 points (28 goals and 25 assists in 75 games) during the 2016-2017 season. He’s still second on the team in points (49), assists (23), and goals (26).

As mentioned before, there’s clearly no reason to be seriously concerned about Chris Kreider, considering all of these great numbers from this season, and especially considering his streaky tendencies from the past. However, it’s important that he picks up his pace again as soon as possible.

In the absence of Zuccarello and Hayes, he needs to step up and be a leader on this team, on the scoresheet and in the locker room. He’s one of the longest-tenured Rangers right now and needs to serve as a leader for the younger players being drafted, coming up in the system, and being traded to New York, both on the ice and off.

His drought won’t last forever, and he’ll almost definitely come back stronger than ever offensively to finish out the season. It’s okay to be annoyed at his slump right now, but have faith; Chris Kreider is going to be just fine.