The cliché that has surrounded
the New York Rangers all season, based on missing the playoffs last year by a
single point, has been that every point counts.
Those points in any or all of the first 81 games of the season count as
much as those in the finale, but once again it will come down to the final game
of the season to decide the Rangers playoff fate. As the playoffs approach, if you are a team
that is battling to get in, the one thing you can take comfort in is having
some sense of control of your destiny. Despite
the charge the Carolina Hurricanes have been on, 7-1-1 in their last 9 games,
going into last night against the Atlanta Thrashers the Rangers still had that
card in their back pocket. It is gone
now. Instead they must find a way to
bounce back against the rival Devils and hope for other teams to aid them in
their quest to make the playoffs this season.
If the Rangers fail to make the
postseason it will be easy to point to last night’s game as the reason why and
it would certainly be part of it, but it goes deeper than that. Over the past three months the Rangers
inability to defeat the teams they are supposed to has cost them an inordinate
amount of points. According to Andrew Gross,
since January 20 the Rangers are now 5-7-1 against the non-playoff teams in the
Eastern Conference. That is 15 lost
points in 13 games against teams that are not in a position to currently make
the postseason. You have to collect as
many points as possible against those teams that are not going to make it and
then play respectably against the better teams.
In contrast, over that same
stretch of the season the team is 9-5-1 against teams currently in the Eastern
Conference playoffs. Those numbers show that
the Rangers can beat any and all teams they might play in the playoffs, but
that their inability to maintain that level against the inferior competition
may well cost them that chance.
Here is a breakdown Buffalo, New
York and Carolina over since January 20…
Overall Record
|
VS Non-Playoff Teams in East
|
VS Playoff Teams in East
|
|
Buffalo
|
21-9-5
|
9-5-2
|
8-3-1
|
New York
|
16-15-2
|
5-7-1
|
9-5-1
|
Carolina
|
17-12-5
|
8-4-2
|
8-6-3
|
As you can see all three teams
have been above .500 against the playoff teams in the Eastern Conference, but
the place where the Rangers fall short against the competition is gaining the
points they should against those teams that are not going to be playing next
week. When you gain only 42% of the possible points against non-playoff teams in your conference over the course of nearly three months, frankly you do not deserve to be in the playoffs yourself. You can look at any one game and
say that was the game in which the Rangers lost control of their destiny, but
the reality is the Rangers lost it over the course of months not any one night
because they could not consistently get the points playoff teams do against
inferior competition.
