State of the New York Rangers rebuild: Report card #4

A season in the NHL will always have its ups and downs, but the New York Rangers have found an even setting of late. Over the last six games they have played .500 hockey, winning three and losing three, same as they had for the previous set of six games. The Rangers find themselves in a tough spot having gotten off to an abysmally slow start and in a tough division, playing catch up is a fools errand.

This is the fourth in a series of report cards for the 2021 New York Rangers. The team is being graded every set of six games, equal to ten percent of the shortened season. The team will be analyzed for their play within the current stretch of six games, the previous sets of six games and in a year to year comparison reflecting the growth of the rebuild. While the overall results are important, how the team has achieved the results is of greater value to the bigger picture.

The previous report cards may be found here:

Report Card #1: Games 1-6          Report Card #2: Games 7-12       Report Card #3: Games 13-18

Are the New York Rangers finding an identity?

Very quickly we are now at the 40% mark of the season.  We are finally starting to see the type of  team the 2021 Rangers are shaping into. Not unfamiliar to “black and blueshirts” under the tutelage of John Tortorella, this Rangers team is a defensively tight group. Though the 2021 version of the team goes about their defense with more skill and less grit, they are no less effective. Currently the Rangers are a top 10 defensive team, rated in terms of shots against and have the third best penalty kill in the league.

Over the last six games that penalty kill has been perfect. The team killed off each of the 11 power play attempts against, including six in total over their three wins. Both offensively and  defensively, the team rallied without the support of their top players. Without Artemi Panarin and Jacob Trouba the team improved on their shot suppression and actually scored more goals.

Unfortunately, the team also surrendered more goals to negate the positives and leave the team with a .500 record. After beating Boston to close out the last six game stretch, Boston enacted revenge, taking the Rangers to school in the first game of this six. The Rangers rebounded with a win, as sloppy as it was against the lowly Buffalo Sabres and capped off their first three game winning streak of the season by beating up on the New Jersey Devils.

The last two games against Pittsburgh, both losses, were games in which the team played well, but a team that is a well oiled veteran machine reminded this young Rangers team that they have a ways to go.