Following last night’s loss today was a day spent mainly
discussing the New York Rangers offense and its recent struggles not to create
chances, but to finish those chances having led to just eight goals in the six
games the team has played in January.
With the Rangers history of offensive struggles anytime that the team
goes through a stretch like this there tends to be a higher level of concern
than there would be for other teams without that history. I took a look at why
the recent offensive struggles were a cause for that concern and what the team
might be able to do to correct the issues they have been having this month.
There are a series of potential causes
for the struggles from being just unlucky to having overachieved offensive
before and everything in between and hopefully against the Canucks Thursday
night the team will make all those causes moot and implement some of those
potential solutions in a rout.
Speaking of their next game and the struggling offense at
practice today the Rangers made some changes
both in their even strength lines and their power play personnel to try and
spark such a turnaround in the results.
The major move in terms of the line combinations was to switch the two
centers now having Stepan play with Wolski and Gaborik while Ansimov would move
between Dubinsky and Zuccarello. On the
man advantage the change was to take Derek Stepan off the point where he
struggled on Tuesday night and move him back to a forward on the unit. I analyze how each of those moves might
impact the Rangers offense as well as had a discussion about the whether or not
Sean Avery belonged on the fourth line following many fans complaining about
how he was demoted following his three straight solid performances.
Also on the agenda was this growing talk concerning John
Tortorella and the coach of the year race.
There are links to the various high profile hockey writers that peg
Torts as their winner for the Jack Adams at the midpoint of the year and I
analyze what the case for Tortorella winning the award is. The case is a compelling one with all the
injuries, young players and overall talent level to be where the Rangers
currently are and I believe he should be given serious consideration for the
award, but do not think he should be the winner right now. Check out the details of the case and who I would
give the award to inside.
Finally in the videos there was the response to last week’s Price
pose when Fleury returned the gesture in kind. Bet the NHL would love to see that in the
playoffs.
