Last night’s game showed two huge flaws with this team, ones which are huge
reasons why I do not believe the New York Rangers can legitimately threaten to
win a Stanley Cup this year. Of those
two flaws, at least one cannot be solved in the final 13 games of this season. The one that is fixable or at least able to
be improved is our level of finishing quality.
The other, which is somewhat related, which cannot be fixed this season is the Rangers lack of elite talent on the offensive end.
Regardless
of the talent level of any of the individual players this team is abysmal at
finishing the chances they create. There
were three missed open nets, a couple of posts and countless other opportunities
that we did not cash in against a replacement level goaltender last night. We are capable of the 7 goal outbursts
because one they get rolling the confidence side takes over and everyone stops
thinking about finishing and just shoots, but the Rangers consistent inability
to hit the right side of an open net or lift the puck over prone goaltenders is
ridiculous.
Most
of these guys are not natural goal scorers or at least not of the sniper
variety, but you can teach or at least improve technique in finishing around
the net. I am not asking them to learn
how to read the play better or beat guys on dazzling moves, just finish when
the puck is on your stick within five feet of the net.
Our
coaching staff talks all the time about building with this group, them learning
at this level, then how about they start teaching them some basic fundamentals
on the offensive end too. Run it like a
free throw drill in basketball for all I care, but do not let them off the ice
until they have successfully scored on X many chances from different spots in
front. I would love to see them use that
little blocker they had during the skill competition which covers the bottom
few inches of the net and forces players to lift the puck off the ice.
Part of what makes for the awful finishing is the lack of
elite talent on the roster. You watch the Ducks and while their lineup certainly
lacks the depth and balance that the Rangers have they have three true top line
players in Ryan, Getzlaf, and Perry, while the Rangers even at their best have
one in Marian Gaborik. To make matters
worse Gaborik has not played at that top level with any consistency this
season, partially due to injury, partially from his lack of consistent and/or
high end partners, but if the Rangers are going to develop any kind of
consistent offense and hold on down the stretch he is going to have to step his
game up. Yes, he did score a goal last
night. No, it does not mean anything.
It
is always nice for a player to see the puck go in and you hope they can build
on it mentally to avoid pressing, but as we saw just a few shifts later having
that goal go in did nothing to help him finish on the open net, which would
have cut the game to one at 4-3. Last
year Gaborik buries that goal without question and he also abuses Cam Fowler on
that one-on-one play instead of having the puck roll harmlessly to Dan
Ellis. He is just not there this season
and while the talk was about the other struggling stars throughout the league
just about all of them have found their form again while Gaborik is still
searching.
Beyond
Gaborik this team is a bunch of hard workers and second line players that lack
the natural talent to be game changers.
This is why the Rangers play the grinding style that they do in order to
manufacture goals and try to win games.
I see all this talk about why don’t the Rangers open it up more and play
with more skill in the safe is death mode and the simple answer is we do not
have that kind of personnel.
The
lack of top line, game breaking players is what has many eager to jump into the
Brad Richards sweepstakes, but I look at the Ducks and most of the other top
lines/players in the league and I cannot think of one that was “bought.” Nearly all of the best lines in the league
were built through the draft and while Brad Richards will certainly add talent
to Marian Gaborik how long does he remain at that level so that the Rangers as
an organization can sustain their ability to contend.
