Slumping New York Rangers Don’t Require Drastic Move

In two weeks, the New York Rangers went from riding high and battling for the top spot in the Eastern Conference to the sky falling.

Will a four-day stretch between games be enough to help the Rangers return to the glorious start to the campaign? Or, will it be more of the same for the club that has dropped six of seven games, all in regulation?

Frankly, while there is panic in Manhattan, let us consider the most likely scenario is behind Door No. 3: The losing skid is simply a correction for a team that is still a contender, but with its share of flaws.

The Rangers are very much the same team that last season topped the NHL regular season standings with 55 wins and 114 points and then lost to the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference Final. Sure, it felt like a whole season of everything going right for the Rangers, but you cannot argue with the success.

Going further back, this is a franchise that won 154 games over the past three seasons.

It is simply foolish to believe the time is at hand to blow up the squad over a couple of lousy weeks—a skid exacerbated by Monday’s 5-1 shellacking at the hands of the rival New Jersey Devils, which makes a defeat all the more crushing.

After all, even with this swoon, the Rangers sit in a playoff spot two dozen games into the season, with the Pittsburgh Penguins coming to visit on Friday.

At a time like this, and in this situation, more often than not, things are set back right with cooler heads.

That said, the Rangers, from general manager Chris Drury through the coaching staff led by Peter Laviolette and all the players, are well aware they are staring at a crossroads. 

The word leaking out that Drury has been actively trying to trade Jacob Trouba and Chris Kreider appears to have impacted the room, but that is only part of the equation. The fact is, dealing away those players will be a lot more difficult than moving the likes of Kaapo Kakko or Filip Chytil, but it is not likely the Rangers can make a franchise-altering deal. 

Offensively, the Rangers are in dire need of more. While Will Cuylie and Alexis Lafreniere are having breakout seasons, dynamic defenseman Adam Fox has recorded 20 assists but no goals, Chris Kreider has nine goals but no assists, Vincent Trocheck has only 12 points and Mika Zibanejad is off the pace of the past few seasons and has been a defensive liability. Kakko and Chytil are putting up decent numbers, but not to the expectations from when they were drafted.

More alarming is the defensive side of the game, and this is where Laviolette is under the gun. The Rangers are second worst in the league in shots allowed per game at 32.8, an average of more than three shots per game compared to last season. The strain is starting to show on the goaltending, notably star netminder Igor Shesterkin.

Amidst Shesterkin’s unresolved contract situation—he is due to become an unrestricted free agent after this season and is looking to become the league’s highest-paid goaltender—the goalie has put himself in the breach. 

In his first nine games of the season, Shesterkin posted a 6-2-1 record with a 2.22 goals-against average and .933 save percentage. In his last nine games, it has added up to a 2-7-0 mark with a 3.93 GAA and .882 SvPct.

The call for drastic change is growing louder and may be necessary at some point, but a massive trade or coaching change for this team is more of a last-resort move, not one necessary after a two-week slump.