New York Rangers: Time off to work on issues

The New York Rangers are looking at a break in the schedule that could last a week.  Their game on Sunday against the Flyers was postponed and right now, their game on Tuesday against the Devils is iffy.  As of Saturday, 18 Devils players are unable to play or practice due to the NHL’s COVID protocols.   If they are still out by Monday, the game won’t happen.

Thursday, the Rangers are supposed to play the Flyers who currently have seven players out due to the COVID protocols.  That game is in jeopardy.

If you don’t believe that, the NHL has asked the Rangers if they would be available to replace the Flyers in Sunday’s Honda NHL Outdoors Sunday game against the Bruins.   The Rangers organization has indicated that they would be willing. What that would mean for their two-game series in Washington scheduled for next weekend remains to be seen.  It is kind of a mess.

Practice time

The fact is, with all of these postponements, it means that the schedule in April and May will be crammed full of makeup games.   The NHL is on a tight time frame if they want to conclude the Stanley Cup Playoffs before the Tokyo Olympics start on July 23.  No matter how you look at it, it is a schedule maker’s nightmare.

What it does mean is that the Rangers have a lot of time to work on the issues that have made this a challenging season for them.

The Rangers unveiled new forward lines in practice on Saturday.

The big change is moving Pavel Buchnevich down to the third line and replacing him with Colin Blackwell.   After practice Coach David Quinn acknowledged that Buchnevich had been “struggling lately” and making the move could help him. Since scoring two goals in the second game of the season, he has only one open net goal in 11 games to go with five assists.   One saving grace for his season has been his work ethic and his contributions on the penalty kill to go along with his eight points.

That’s not to say that his linemates Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider are on fire.  Zibanejadhas not scored since the third game of the season and has only two assists.  That’s three points on the season while averaging 20:46 minutes of playing time.

Meanwhile, Kreider has four goals in 12 games and has yet to get an assist and is scoreless in his last four games.  He is playing an average of 17:41 minutes per game, the most average ice time in his career.

Quinn talked about the slumps facing his top players. “Unfortunately, we have a bunch of guys going through it at the same time.. Right now collectively we have it happening…it’s not from a lack of effort, these guys have a proven track record..they’re gonna get out of it….we don’t have much more time for them to get out of it.”

The power play

Everyone is well aware of how bad the Rangers’ power play is this season.   Quinn said that the power play was the reason that the game against Boston turned around in the second period, saying the “early power play in the second period, we just lost our mojo. It demoralized us while their two power plays gave them more life. ”

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It’s true, the Rangers got the man advantage just 2:12 into the second period and the inept power play actually slowed the team down with the Bruins outshooting the Blueshirts.  That was followed by two Ranger penalties within the next six minutes and even though they killed  the penalties,  the Bruins controlled play and  had eight scoring opportunities.  Quinn said the Rangers’ poor second period was “the direct result of the power plays more than anything.”

According the Vince Mercogliano of USA Today, they did change up the power play units at practice.   The first unit was Adam Fox, Mika Zibanejad, Kaapo Kakko, Ryan Strome and Chris Kreider.  The second unit was Jacob Trouba, Alexis Lafrenière, Pavel Buchneich, Colin Blackwell and Brendan Lemieux.

Of course, all of the lines and power play units will change if Artemi Panarin is healthy enough to play on Tuesday (if they play).  Quinn said that they are “hopeful” that he will be ready to play.

One of the questions is why, with the power play record at  two for its last 29, Quinn has not shaken up the top unit.  In the new configuration, Kakko replaces the injured Panarin, but the rest of the unit is intact.  The second unit is changed, but they have been getting practically no power play time since the first unit remains on the ice well into the second minute.

Encouragingly, Zibanejad has been getting more and more opportunities and appears to be ready to break out, but Kreider has been virtually invisible.  At this point, with one of the worst power plays in the league, it may be time for wholesale changes.

In the last game the Strome-Kakko-Lafrenière line had some good looks and one wonders why not keep a unit that is clicking together with the man advantage.

What does it mean?

What’s the point of all of these comparisons?   First, what Quinn said is absolutely true. There are some “pretty good forwards” on the Rangers and that has affected the ice time for Kakko and Lafrenière.

The situation is the those pretty good forwards are having pretty bad seasons.  Except for Panarin, they are all playing badly. And that means it may be time for the kids to get some playing time that is consistent and important.

The issue is deployment. Most of the rookies got more power play time and Kakko’s time with the man advantage has dropped in his second season. With nothing going right offensively, is it the time for Quinn to throw the kids into the pool and see if they can swim?   With Panarin out, it could be the perfect opportunity.

There are mitigating factors that stand in the way of Quinn allocating ice time differently.  Chris Kreider’s $6.5 million salary has bought him a leash that is longer than he has deserved.   With Zibanejad’s contract expiring after next season, they need to figure out if he is worth a long term commitment.  They are committed to Panarin and he  has not done anything to warrant a reduction in ice time.

It’s easy to heap the blame on David Quinn for misusing his young talent,but we don’t know where the pressures are coming from when it comes to those mitigating factors. The fact is that both Lafrenière and Kakko ave bounced all over the lineup and their playing time has varied wildly from game to game.  If that is strictly the coach’s call, then its up to Quinn to figure out how to best use these young players.

The odd thing is he has done exactly that with his young defense.  Teaming up Adam Fox and Ryan Lindgren and giving them so much ice time and then following that by heaping heavy minutes on K’Andre Miller is precisely what he hasn’t done with his young forwards.  It’s working for his blueliners, why not try it with Lafrenière and Kakko?