5 NY Rangers players who must bring their A-Game following the All-Star Break
The NY Rangers won their first game following the All-Star Break, and several players must step up to keep that trend going.
The New York Rangers have come close to ruling the Eastern Conference all season, and they sit just six points away from taking the lead as they enter the most pivotal part of their 2023-24 campaign. They are also first in the Metropolitan Division, but if the Rangers get too comfortable, they will lose that top spot to a surging Carolina Hurricanes team.
Therefore, several top-notch players must either take their respective play up a notch or rediscover what made them such phenomenal players in the past. One name who will always wow crowds from now until April is Artemi Panarin, whose 67 points and 31 goals more than pace the team.
No, Panarin won’t give you much when the Rangers don’t have the puck, but there are quite a few players more than willing to do the dirty work, some of which are listed below.
Chris Kreider must be the go-to in clutch situations
Before we talk about those willing to buckle down and play a solid game in the defensive zone (or between the pipes), Chris Kreider is one player whose game needs to continue at its current trend. He’s fourth on the team in points with 45, and Kreider is also leading the Rangers with a plus-14 rating, nine power play goals (tied with Artemi Panarin and Vincent Trocheck), and five game-winning goals.
The final two numbers listed above show us that Kreider is one of the best players on the team in clutch moments. If the Rangers need the go-ahead goal, he’s often there to score it, and you can say the same when New York is on the man advantage.
While guys like Panarin are always the go-to, Kreider must keep giving himself scoring chances, as New York has only benefited from his situational production. During close contests especially, the Rangers must keep calling his number.
Adam Fox’s special teams presence will be valuable down the stretch
Adam Fox has either won the Norris Trophy or found himself in the top-five for three years running, and he still may at least get a look when the regular season ends in April. While his overall numbers aren’t as good in 2023-24, we must remember he landed on injured reserve earlier this season, so that was a hindrance.
But when he’s healthy, few, if any, blueliners are more valuable than Fox, who still has 37 points and eight goals in 40 games this season. While it’s not likely to see him set a new personal-best for points, he only needs to stay at his near points-per-game level to keep contributing efficiently when the Rangers have the puck.
Points aren’t the only reason Fox is so good, since if you look at the number of blocks he had over the previous two seasons and even the 56 so far this year, they show us that he has a talent for invading scoring lanes. He can be as disruptive as many blueliners in hockey, and it’s why he can be so effective regardless of who has possession of the puck.
Producing more at even strength, however, is one area Fox can improve, as the Rangers on-ice shooting percentage with him in the game sits at just 7.6 percent. If he gives himself and his teammates more chances in that situation, he will be more of a game-changer now than ever before.
It’s time for Igor Shesterkin to revert to his Vezina-winning ways
Jonathan Quick has arguably been the best goaltender on the New York Rangers this season with a 2.35 GAA, a 0.918 save percentage, and 11 wins. No, he hasn’t put up the most consistent numbers, which you can see with his pedestrian 0.471 quality starts percentage. However, the 38-year-old has shown us he’s still more than capable of putting up solid production.
Meanwhile, Shesterkin’s output is a far cry from his Vezina-winning 2021-22 season, when he put up 36 wins, a 0.935 save percentage, and a 2.07 GAA that year to go with an impeccable 0.731 quality starts percentage. Last season, he wasn’t as good, but fans of opposing teams still groaned when they realized Shesterkin was in the net for New York.
This year, that trend has cooled, as Shesterkin’s 0.899 save percentage and 2.86 GAA sit tied for 30th and 20th in the league, respectively, per QuantHockey. Heading into the most important stretch of the season, Shesterkin must find his game and bring that old Vezina-winning version of himself forward for the final two months of the year. If not, it will be tough for the Rangers to snag a top seed in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Blake Wheeler is running out of chances to win a Cup
There are aging players you root against because they have won several Stanley Cups and more than their fair share of awards. Blake Wheeler isn’t one of those players, as he found himself playing for the floundering Atlanta Thrashers not long before his former team, the Boston Bruins, hoisted the Stanley Cup.
Wheeler was part of several impeccable teams after the Thrashers relocated and rebranded themselves as the Winnipeg Jets. And while he once took Second-Team All-Star honors and finished in the top-10 for the Hart Trophy in the past, the Stanley Cup has evaded Wheeler.
This season may be the 37-year-old’s best chance to win the Cup, and that will push him to help put the New York Rangers in the most ideal situation in the playoffs. While it’s true Wheeler’s role in New York isn’t what it was in Winnipeg, he’s still proven himself to be one of the most effective lower-liners in hockey, and it’s something he must parlay in the season’s home stretch.
The motivational aspect is there, so if we see more flashes of who was for a good stretch there one of the best players in hockey, the Rangers will more than benefit when they need production from one of their most experienced skaters.
Mika Zibanejad’s even-strength production must skyrocket
If the Rangers can find one more player to rival Artemi Panarin’s production in the offensive zone, Mika Zibanejad is the first player who comes to mind. This is no knock on the 30-year-old, who is averaging almost a point per game, but ideally, we would see him more closely resemble the productive player we saw last season during New York’s playoff run.
Last year, Zibanejad scored a career-high 91 points, averaging 1.1 points per game. If that production returns, opponents will more than have their hands full looking to stop not one but two top-tier goal-scorers. Also in 2022-23, Zibanejad enjoyed a stellar 15.5 shooting percentage with 251 shots on goal, both of which have dropped substantially this season.
Those 251 shots equal roughly three per game, and the 118 in 49 he’s recorded so far in 2023-24 sits at just 2.40. Overall, we need to see Zibanejad taking more shots at the net when a lane opens. For the Rangers to become a top-five scoring team in the NHL, Zibanejad must get more aggressive in shooting the puck. Again, this is no knock on Zibanejad, but he hasn’t quite put his most complete game forward yet.
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(Statistics provided by Hockey-Reference as of Tuesday, February 6th)