The New York Rangers are heading into a tailspin, as they have dropped five of their last six games with a record of 1-3-2 over that span. With the recent skid being a very prominent and telling sign of things to come, this season might already be doomed.
Let's talk about it.
Losing ground in Metropolitan Division
At the moment, the Carolina Hurricanes, New York Islanders, and Philadelphia Flyers are pulling away from the pack of Metropolitan Division teams. The Rangers are four points behind the Flyers, as well as the Washington Capitals, at 40 points, for the third playoff spot in the division. To make matters worse, the Rangers are in this deficit having played 35 games while Philly has only played 32, and Washington has played 33.
It is not a huge setback, but with only four points out of a possible 12 recent points, there was a definitive chance of gaining some ground. Especially since this squad took two of those points whilst facing off against two of the best teams in the league, Colorado and Vegas. The Rangers could not handle mediocre tests like the dumpster-fire Vancouver Canucks, a good but not great Anaheim Ducks team, and Chicago, who have yet to fully prove itself as a clear-cut playoff team.
Not a great stretch here.
Confidence is broken
Aside from the losses, the confidence in this team is starting to break, if it hasn't been broken yet. There has to be a resurgence here, just one game to blow out whichever opponent they face. If not, and these losses continue to rack up, it is not going to work out for this team in the long run.
It was evident when goaltender Igor Shesterkin lost his mind heading down the tunnel after the loss to Anaheim. Then, they followed it up with a donut against a Canucks team that just sold their best offensive and defensive threat they have had in their franchise history in Quinn Hughes.
Star defenseman Adam Fox is skating on his own, but nowhere near ready to return to competition. Regaining Matt Rempe is a plus, but he is still playing hurt with his thumb, all jacked up. The current regime is having issues getting the offense going, with a total of 10 goals forced and 20 goals allowed over this recent six-game spread.
As each game passes, there is a growing sense that this team is heading toward a second consecutive miss of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. It seems like it is written in the stars that they need to start to strip away some of this core group and perform another quick rebuild. The Blueshirts out there on the ice are just not getting the job done.