It isn’t all bad that the Rangers have stumbled a bit lately, isn’t all bad for the players to face a bit of adversity, and it isn’t bad at all for management to be exposed to the flaws that must be corrected with 17 games to go until the Feb. 27 deadline, beginning with tonight’s match at Madison Square Garden against the Predators.
The sky hasn’t fallen, but in losing two of the last three, 3-0 to the Senators at home on Thursday and 4-1 in the Montreal House of Horrors on Sunday, the Rangers neglected to apply their signature of relentlessness and structure that has generally appeared on the bottom line of the season.
“When you have games like that, it’s a good reminder of what we need to do in order to be successful,” Henrik Lundqvist said. “We responded really, really well in Toronto on Saturday [3-0 shutout victory] after the game against Ottawa, so it’s not like we can’t do it.
“There are so many games in the season, there are going to be bumps, for sure. You know that. The important thing is how you react when that happens.”
It is hard to play as hard as the Rangers do on essentially every shift. Make no mistake, that’s a requirement on this team, demanded not only by the coaching staff, but by the peer group of athletes.
It becomes even harder, however, when a lack of production leaves virtually no margin for error. And that’s a major part of the issue the Rangers are confronting after having scored 19 goals in their last nine games.
Slumps have been contagious throughout the top of the lineup. Marian Gaborik has scored once in his last nine matches. Ryan Callahan has one goal in his last 10. Artem Anisimov has gone a dozen games without a goal. And Brad Richards, whose season has been about peaks and valleys, has scored just one in his last six after a stretch in which he scored once in eight matches.
The power play has continued to act as a killer, the Rangers 1-for-23 over the last 10 games and 3-for-41 over the last 16. The Rangers have been shut out on the power play in 25 of their 43 games, getting one PPG in 14 games and two in four.
“When you face challenges like this in a season and respond to them,” Callahan said, “you look back and recognize they’re good for you.”
* The Rangers returned Kris Newbury to the Whale yesterday, an indication Brandon Dubinsky (shoulder), Ruslan Fedotenko (back) or both may be set to return.