Hot and Cold: Can Mika Zibanejad Be Part of the Solution For the New York Rangers

Mika's Season

To say Mika Zibanejad's season has been a disappointment so far would be an understatement. The 31-year-old forward has tallied five goals and 13 assists through the first 24 games of the season. This would be considered a slow but not horrible start, if it weren't for his abysmal plus/minus rating of minus-14. Zibanejad has scored over 70 points in every full season he's played for the Blueshirts, but this season has stood in stark contrast to those performances.

For a member of the Rangers' top six and first power play the production and defensive play simply hasn't been enough. Zibanejad has been a leader on this Rangers teams for the past few seasons, helping them reach the Eastern Conference Final in two of the last three seasons, but with the way Zibanejad and the Rangers have been playing this year, the East Conference Final may as well be on Mars.

"Not The Best of Times"

Following the Rangers embarrassing 5-1 loss to the Devils on home ice Monday night, Zibanejad spoke about the struggles he and his teammates have been facing as of late.

"The will and the want to turn this around, I don't think anyone of us would be here if we didn't have the attitude, but it still has to translate on the ice," Zibanejad said. " just got to be a balance of desperation, but also a cool head, too...It's not the best of times, right now, obviously losing a lot of games. We still have to battle. We still have to work. We can't do anything else, there's no magic to it, we just have to keep working and find a way."

Zibanejad emphasized the fact that the recent failures of the Rangers are not for lack of trying. According to Zibanejad, everyone in the room wants to be there and has the desire to win hockey games, things just aren't going their way right now.

At a certain point, though, the leaders in the Rangers locker room have to captain their own fate. It's not good enough to simply shrug one's shoulders and declare bad luck to be the killer of success.

Zibanejad's game is a microcosm of what's been wrong with the Rangers during their recent slide- not enough scoring, allowing too many chances by the opposition, and an overall failure to live up to potential.

If the Rangers are going to pull themselves out of this hole, it's going to take the big names like Panarin, Trocheck, Shesterkin, Fox, and Zibanejad to wake up and play the hockey they're capable of.