Breaking down the Rangers early season offensive struggles

The Rangers have finished up their long western road trip, coming away with four of a potential eight points. The Rangers have struggled to score all season, but are sitting in second place in the Metro Division with a 6-3-3 record.   If the Blueshirts have any hope of making the playoffs, they will have to find their scoring touch.

After 12 games played the Rangers are averaging 2.42 goals per game.  That’s 28th in the NHL, better than only Dallas, Chicago, Montreal and Arizona.  Dallas has the eighth worst record in the NHL and Chicago, Montreal and Arizona are the three worst.   The fact that the Rangers have the fifth most points in the league is pretty remarkable.

The Rangers’ inability to score hasn’t been helped by the fact that they have run into some hot goalies.  Despite blowing a 2-0 lead in the third period in Vancouver, they had their chances.

That sequence by Thatcher Demko has summed up the Rangers’ season so far. A five-on-three power play with three minutes to go in a tie game was not able to convert. The power play currently sits at 19th with a 19.5% success rate. One of their problems is their stars’ lack of production so far. Chris Kreider has five of the teams’ eight power play goals. Artemi Panarin has only one and Mika Zibanejad has two.

Overall, Panarin has scored only twice and is showing a reluctance to shoot. His 21 shots ranks seventh on the team. Zibanejad scored only one goal in his first nine games, but is showing signs of heating up with three goals in his last three games.

While the Rangers top guns aren’t getting it done offensively, they aren’t getting any help from the bottom six. Five Rangers forwards have yet to score a goal. Sammy Blais who was acquired for Pavel Buchnevich this summer has yet to score. With the lack of offense the question of did the Rangers go overboard on toughness has been brought up again. Sammy Blais has played well but is also a very different player from Buchnevich.

Once again we’re waiting for the young guys to take the next step. Alexis Lafrenière has three goals and four points, but was recently demoted to the fourth line. Filip Chytil has two goals and three points, and didn’t show much when Strome was out. And Kaapo Kakko who missed four games with an injury has yet to record a point.

One question I have had this season is, why has Greg McKegg been an everyday player. Before he was sent down, McKegg had played in eight of the Rangers 12 games. Yes, McKegg brings some toughness and can kill penalties but he and Rooney are essentially the same player. Of course many people would have loved to see Vitali Kravtsov especially with all these scoring woes, and it doesn’t help that in his first KHL game, Kravtsov had two goals and three points including this overtime winner.

But with Kravstov not available why not give other young players a shot? Julien Gauthier has  played in only three games this season and Morgan Barron has played in two. Barron was a point per game player in his last year at Cornell and last season in Hartford. Currently Barron has five points in eight games this year in Hartford. Many people questioned why McKegg was called up instead of Barron when Strome went out with COVID protocol. Julien Gauthier a former first round pick, was a 20 goal scorer in the AHL and hasn’t been given consistent play time in NHL.

When you’re having trouble scoring why not shake things up and let younger guys who have ability to score get a shot over a journeyman who gives you nothing offensively.

The Rangers this season are 1-2-2 when scoring less than three goals. The Rangers are 5-0-1 when scoring three or more.

Offensive struggles affect your entire hockey team. These offensive struggles have put a lot of pressure on their goaltending here in the early going. Igor Shesterkin has been amazing so far ranking top 10 in most goaltending categories. The Rangers are lucky that the other teams in the division have had similar struggles.

The Rangers have to figure it out sooner rather than later because eventually Pittsburgh will get Crosby healthy, the Islanders will play a home game, and Washington will get going. The Metropolitan Division is the toughest in the NHL and goal scoring problems are not something you want to have while trying to be a playoff team.