Where the Gorton regime failed in the rebuild
By Steve Paulus
As the New York Rangers enjoy their two week vacation, we can enjoy the fact that this has been a season more successful than anyone could have predicted, but also face the fact that the issues facing the team have become pronounced. Anyone who follows the team knows that the problem is.
Five-on-five scoring has been abysmal primarily because the team has absolutely no depth on their forward lines. The team is winning based on superior goaltending, a solid defense and special teams. The Blueshirts are a two line team and because the bottom players are making no contributions, the top two lines are unable to make hay 5v5.
It’s a big problem when the opposition nullifies the effectiveness of the Zibanejad and Strome lines because they doesn’t have to worry about the third or fourth lines. The win over Florida was a perfect example. All ten points for the Rangers came from the top two lines. Those lines were unstoppable and that’s why the Rangers won (along with Shesterkin in goal).
So, how on earth did the Rangers end up in such a predicament? It’s been the great failure of a rebuild that has, for the most part, done exceedingly well. Jeff Gorton has gotten kudos for his work on the rebuild, but he made some awful choices in 2017 and 2018 and they have put the Rangers in this predicament.
When it comes to the rebuild, there’s no denying that Gorton did good job. But he was very, very lucky. He lucked out when Artemi Panarin decided to take less money to play for the Rangers. He lucked out when Adam Fox was able to control his own destiny and made it clear that there was only one team that he wanted to play for. He lucked out when the Rangers won the draft lottery two years in a row. He lucked out when he traded for Ryan Strome who has played better than anyone expected.
His trade for Jacob Trouba has begun to live up to its promise and his long term signing of Chris Kreider is looking brilliant. But if Gorton had not made some bad decisions at the start of the rebuild, the Rangers would be much closer to being a Stanley Cup contender than they already are. It all started in 2017.