New York Rangers: Five takeaways from the Stanley Cup Playoffs (so far)
The first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs isn’t over yet, but the New York Rangers and their fans have learned some key lessons about what it takes to succeed in the post-season.
The New York Rangers are not in the post-season, but hope to be back in the playoff picture as soon as next season. For a rebuilding team with a young coach, there are lessons to be learned every playoff year and 2019 is no exception.
It’s early to assess to the playoffs, but already there are some takeaways we can discuss and how they relate to the Blueshirts.
#1 – The regular season doesn’t matter
If any lesson has been hammered home this post-season, it is that the regular season really doesn’t matter so long as you qualify for the playoffs. Much has been made of the disastrous first round performance of the Tampa Bay Lighting. The bottom line is that the team had not played a meaningful game in months and were unable to turn it on at the flick of a switch.
Meanwhile, the Blue Jackets had been playing playoff intensity hockey games for weeks so they were primed for the playoffs. The same goes for the Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars and the St. Louis Blues. All four teams engineered shocking or unexpected upsets in the first round and in the case of Columbus and Colorado, both teams were almost out of the playoff picture with days to go in the season. The Blues, on the other hand, were the worst team of the league when 2019 started so they have been playing for their lives for months. It was only four months ago that the owner of the Stars called out his best players for their bad play.
For a rebuilding team like the Rangers, this has to be encouraging. They can integrate new faces at the start of the season and their young players can get valuable experience without the pressure of being at the top of the standings. If they can gel at the right time and sneak into the playoffs, anything can happen. Granted, they have to be good enough to make the playoffs, but a shaky start will not rule them out and after some growing pains they could be good enough.
#2 – Finishing strong is important
The five teams that have won their First Round series all finished the season on hot streaks. Columbus went 11-4-1 in their last 15 games and 7-1 in their last eight. The Islanders went 11-6-0 in their last 17 games and finished 4-1 in their last five. The Blues lost only one game in regulation in their last 12 (9-1-2) and were 4-1 in their last five. Dallas lost only two games in regulation in their last 17 and were 30101 in their final five. Finally, Colorado finished 8-1-2 in their last 11 games with a 3-1-1 record in their last five games.
This is a lesson the Rangers should heed as they get back into the playoff picture. Let’s not forget 2014. The Rangers finished the season with the 12th best record among the 16 teams that qualified for the post-season. They went 12-5-2 in their last 17 games going into the playoffs and lost only one in their last five games in regulation. And we all know what happened to that Ranger team.
While early season success is great, it’s how you finish that matters. It was encouraging to see that David Quinn understands that and he knew the importance of their late season victories over St. Louis and Pittsburgh and their comeback against Columbus.
#3 – Defense wins in the playoffs
If there is one obvious weakness on this Rangers team, it is defense. The defense corps has gaping holes and the forwards are not defensively responsible. Quinn knows this and addressed it in his comments after the season.
The key question moving forward is whether the Rangers defensemen are good enough. On paper, the team has a good balance of offensive defenesmen (Skjei, Shattenkirk, Pionk and DeAngelo) and defensive defensemen (Hajek, Lindgren, Staal and Smith). There has been a lot of chatter about signing Erik Karlsson or trading for Jacob Trouba. The team may be better served looking to acquire a shutdown defenseman along the lines of a Dan Girardi in his prime.
As for defensive minded forwards, the Rangers best defensive forward is Mika Zibanejad. The team should waste no time in naming him team captain to reinforce the message about defensive responsibility.
One reason for the opening round results was the ability of teams to shut down top scorers. Nikita Kucherov, Johnny Gaudreau and Sidney Crosby were goal-less. Brayden Point and Jake Guentzel scored just once. The Blues shut down Patrik Laine after he scored in each of their first three games as he was scoreless over the last three. Sniper Mark Scheifele had only two goals in six games.
The old adage that a good defense beats a good offense is never more true than in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
#4 – Blueline depth is essential
You can never have enough defensemen. If there was mistake the Lightning made at the trade deadline, it was standing pat and not bolstering their defense corps. When Victor Hedman and Anton Stralman went out with injuries they were forced to rely heavily on rookies Erik Cernak and Jan Ruta. Along with Cernak and Ruta, they were left sophomore Andrew Sergachev along with senior citizens Dan Girardi and Brayden Coburn. Ryan McDonagh was left to shoulder most of the load and it didn’t help that he had an awful series
The Washington Capitals learned that lesson with their acquisition of Michal Kempny last season and this year they went out and got Nick Jensen who has stepped up with Kempny’s season ending knee injury. Jensen is yet another reason the Caps are still playing and the Lightning are not.
The Rangers carried eight defensemen on the roster this season and often played seven. While juggling extra players is a challenge, the experience will serve the team well if and when they get back into the post season.
While it’s too early to tell how lack of depth will affect the remaining teams as the playoffs proceed, but every night another player goes down and depth grows even more important.
#5 – Free agents show their real stuff in the playoffs
Hopefully, the Rangers learned a lot from the playoff performances by some key free agents.
Kevin Hayes had an undistinguished series for the Winnipeg Jets. In six games he scored two goals and had one assist. Perhaps more telling was his ice time. He played as many as 15 minutes in only two games and played only 8:32 in Game Two when the Jets shortened their bench. On a team loaded with offensive firepower, Hayes was definitely not a go-to guy.
Maybe he was was an important offensive cog for the Rangers, but on a playoff team, he was a third line center. Even more so, Hayes career post-season numbers are not overwhelming. In 40 playoff game he has four goals and nine assists. The Rangers may want to think twice about a return to Broadway as has been rumored.
Marquee free agent Matt Duschene had his first taste of playoff experience in six years and led Columbus with three goals and four assists in their series sweep. Artemi Panarin notched two goals and five points in four games. He has has always been an outstanding playoff performer with 20 points in 21 career playoff games. If Duschene and Panarin continue to excel, it will only drive their price up.
There’s one future free agent who is performing just as the Rangers expected. Mats Zuccarello scored three goals in Dallas’ six game series win over Nashville. I’ve said it before, if he is willing to do a short-term deal to come back to New York, as a mentor and spiritual leader, the Rangers could do worse.
On the blueline, it’s worth keeping an eye on UFA Colorado defenseman Patrik Nemeth. He’s a big bodied 26-year old Swedish defenseman who could fill a role as a stay at home backliner. On the list of teams eliminated, Jets defenseman Ben Chiarot, 27, is also a free agent and is another big, strong blueliner. If the Rangers are looking to bolster their defense both players did nothing to harm their value in the free agent marketplace with their playoff performances.
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The playoffs have reverted to competitive form and we can look forward to three seventh games in the next two days. Meanwhile, five teams are playing golf and five team are awaiting their next opponents. For the Rangers, there will be more lessons to be learned.