At different points I have speculated on what the Rangers should do with Michael Del Zotto not only for right now, but to further his development into the type of player he can be for them. Typically the focus of the negative side has been on his defensive mistakes and how he keeps repeating them as being the main source of frustration with his development. That is not the case today. Today the frustration is with the other side of the puck in terms of his passing and shooting issues. The defensive issues are still there though to be fair he has not had a significant brain cramp giveaway in front of the net in about a week and he made a very nice sliding defensive play last night to stop a two-on-one with Crosby.
The strength of Del Zotto’s game was supposed to be his offensive prowess and his ability to quarterback the power play after all it is the reason he was rushed to the NHL when he was not defensively ready and it was his hot offensive start last year that kept him here the full season. The offense other than the age has been the most commonly used excuse to put up with the defensive screw ups and yet this season the offense simply is not there. We can talk about things like the sophomore jinx/slump, but I would rather spend the time trying to fix the problem then deal with the myths.
