New York Rangers: On the road to somewhere

The New York Rangers wrapped up a four game road trip on Saturday afternoon with a stunning come from behind victory in Ottawa.  While there wasn’t a whole lot of riveting hockey played during the tour of eastern Canada and Nashville it’s really only about the points.

So when we last left each other, this was the final sentence of my article about the Rangers first two games.

“Enjoy the road trip.”

How we all feeling now? Seriously fans, how ya feeling?.

The Rangers just played four games where they had to fight for every inch of ice space for 60-minutes a game and they came away with every point they could have possibly taken.  When was the last time that happened?  Feeling good now?

The Rangers gave up a total of five goals in four games.  That opening night fiasco in Washington is looking like one big fat anomaly.  Since that game the team has been a beast defensively, giving up little to nothing, with Jacob Trouba playing his best hockey since putting on the Blueshirt and Adam Fox already putting his name on top the the Norris list.  And oh yeah, Igor Shesterkin is rather good as well.

Each game was pretty much a carbon copy of the other.  The games were not high on pure entertainment value, except for the final five minutes in Ottawa where you can thank Tim Stützle and his love of soccer theatrics for giving the Rangers life, and the absolutely riveting overtime period in Toronto.

The games were however, very high on the team building aspect.  After six games, you can already see that this team is different from previous years. This team battles to the end.

We are only six games in and already I do not feel the same old dread as the game goes to the final ten minutes.  That was pretty much a regular occurrence over the past five years.  Now, suddenly there is a sense of confidence that this team may just find a way to win and not lose.

What is different?

Sammy Blais, Barclay Goodrow, and Ryan Reaves.

Each of them has had a very significant impact on the team already. Chris Drury was a hockey player, a hell of a hockey players.  Do not think for one second that he does not know what it takes to build a team.

At this point I could give a rat’s rump about Vitali Kravtsov. You know what, the kid is probably right, he wouldn’t get a shot to play in the top six on this team.  So he can slink back to Siberia and hang out there until he grows up a little bit because I have full faith in the fact that Chris Drury knows what the hell he is doing.  Trade him, talk him into returning to Hartford, who cares, don’t need him.

The Rangers very quickly lost two of their top players when Kaapo Kakko and Ryan Strome went out of the line-up and two of Drury’s new guys stepped right in and filled the spots without missing a beat.  That’s the real difference in this team.  They are 12 deep on the offensive side of the puck this year, that’s double the depth from last year.

Gerard Gallant has also made a big difference.  While he has had to juggle his lines a little bit because two of his top six are out, he is still very consistently rolling all four lines.  That makes a difference.  When everyone plays, everyone is invested and every player know that they need to contribute.  It’s a total team mentality, not a top heavy one.

Still work to do

It’s easy to be on top of the world right now, the Rangers are winning yet there is STILL plenty of room for improvement.  That is enticing, it means that means the team can only get better.

On the defensive side, K’Andre Miller just seems a little bit off.  He has not been bad, just not as slick as he was last year.  He will find his game.

On the other hand there has to be just a little bit of concern for Nils Lundkvist.  Yes he is a rookie and has only played five games, but it’s pretty clear that he is not up to the physical side of the NHL just yet.  Size wise he isn’t much different from Adam Fox, but you very rarely see Fox get hit hard or lose a puck because he was out-muscled.  That is not the case with Lundkvist, he pretty much gets tossed around out there.  The kid clearly has the skills and will surely be a very good NHL player but there is work to be done.

Offensively the Rangers are struggling a bit, but this is the one aspect of the team game that will surely improve and probably improve rather quickly.

The return of Kakko and Strome will play a big part in that, but the real factor that will turn things around is Artemi Panarin.  Panarin is playing OK, but he seems just a little bit off his game since Strome went out on Covid-19 protocol.  He really doesn’t seem to mesh with Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad the way you would expect him to.  When he gets back on the left side of Strome you should expect him to turn it up a notch.

Finally the power play.  I mentioned it last week but it has to be mentioned again.  It needs to be better.  There doesn’t seem to be any variety in the approach from one man-up advantage to the next.  Let’s mix it up a bit.  If the power play kicks into gear, look out.

What next?

A pretty slow week lies ahead for Ranger fans. Calgary comes to the Garden on Monday night and then it is a long wait until Friday when the Columbus Blue Jackets come to town.

After that it is a bad TV week for Ranger fans as the team spends Halloween in Seattle and then hits western Canada in November for games with Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary again.  Those late starts for fans on the east coast are rough.

But if we have learned one thing after this recent swing through Canada, the great white north can be a friendly place to visit.