If the 2013-14 and 2014-15 Rangers were called Zed, do you know what we’d be saying right now? Zed’s dead, baby; Zed’s dead.
Forty-five games into 2015-16, it is time to recalibrate; time to acknowledge the disconnect between these Rangers and the two teams that came before them under Alain Vigneault’s watch that achieved significant, albeit not ultimate, success.
Yesterday’s gone; yesterday’s gone.
The Blueshirts are less than the sum of their parts, and their individual parts are in turn less than the sum and substance they have been, too. That unfortunately starts with two of the best guys to be a part of the organization in decades in Dan Girardi and Marc Staal, whose drop-offs have been dramatic and apparently contagious.
The individual and collective breakdowns have created a noxious mixture of doubt and passivity on the ice. The shared chip on their shoulder, the swagger — they’re history.
These are essentially the same players playing under the same system, so the repeated fundamental breakdowns in discipline, defensive-zone coverage in general and defending the front of the net, specifically, are baffling.
OK, Staal and Girardi have been issues. But Ryan McDonagh has been equally faulty in net-front coverage, as have the defensively deficient Keith Yandle and Dan Boyle. Opponents who go to the front are left with the time and space to lay down a blanket and a picnic spread without fear of being disturbed. There’s no price to pay, except on those occasions Dylan McIlrath gets a chance.
Again: At the minimum, McIlrath should be part of a right-side rotation with Girardi and Boyle, while given a legitimate opportunity to nail down a regular spot even if it comes at the expense of one of the veterans.
Boyle’s work on the power play is the raison d’être for having him in the lineup. Fact is, Boyle has not been on the ice for a power-play goal in the past nine games covering 26 advantages. And then there are the other 52 to 54 minutes of the game through which to navigate with No. 22.
It’s interesting, isn’t it? Somehow, even with an offensive zone start percentage of 61.9, which is seventh-highest in the NHL among defensemen (Yandle’s 69.6 percent leads the league), Boyle has the fewest number of even-strength points (two goals, two assists, four points) among the Rangers’ six regulars on the blue line.
Vigneault is less communicative than any coach I have ever covered on a daily basis. He explains nothing. You rarely know what he’s thinking. He is practiced at sidestepping direct questions about the lineup; combinations; players’ minutes and assignments; and player evaluation.
He basically speaks in a canned two-answers-fit-all loop. Doesn’t make Vigneault a bad guy — he is far from that — but you know almost nothing more about the team after talking with him than beforehand. So you’re left grasping for answers, much like the Rangers are grasping for solutions.
The Blueshirts break down repeatedly. Their Point A-to-Point B breakout/transition game that kick-started their speed attack the past two seasons is trapped in a maze, maybe because the defensemen either aren’t in good position or are having all sorts of trouble handling and managing the puck, maybe because the forwards are not in good enough support mode, most likely a combination of both.
You’d think the Rangers would profit from getting onto the ice for hard practices where they could work on their deficiencies (cough, cough, penalty kill), but the coach — who has researched the importance of rest and recuperation — obviously doesn’t agree.
The Blueshirts did not skate Monday after back-to-back afternoon games. They are not scheduled to skate Wednesday in the aftermath of Tuesday’s Garden match against Vancouver, even with the following game set for Friday in Carolina.
Regardless of those 76 playoff games over the past four years, the Rangers can’t be tired now after having played nine games the past 27 days. By the time they return from the All-Star break, they will have played 13 games in 41 days.
Surely, they could benefit from some prep time at the rink.
The Rangers look slow. They look unsettled. They don’t look like a well-coached team. They look like a playoff-bubble team that will need Henrik Lundqvist to be at the height of his powers every night in order to have a chance to qualify for the playoffs.
The run to the Cup final? The charge to the Presidents’ Trophy?
Zed’s dead, baby; Zed’s dead.