When the Rangers underwent their extreme summer makeover, Glen Sather’s emphasis was on constructing a defense that could move the puck quickly on the breakout and in transition to spring what nearly everyone foresaw as an interchangeable flock of forwards.
“The way the game is now, you’ve got to be able to hit guys in the open and make plays,” the GM said on July 3 after having signed defensemen Michal Rozsival, Wade Redden and Dimitri Kalinin to free agent contracts equaling a combined cap hit of $13.6 million for this season. “Hockey’s a moving target all the time; if you’re not willing to move with the trend, you’re going to be left behind.”
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The concept was a reasonable one. Too bad the execution by the aforementioned three defensemen has been so lousy. Somehow, the Rangers have been worse moving the puck from the back end this year than they were last season, when Fedor Tyutin and either Christian Backman or Marek Malik (and sometimes both) were in the lineup.
Go figure.
Indeed, the inability of the alleged puck-moving defensemen to move the puck is a major contributing factor to the Rangers’ abysmal output of 2.35 goals per game, not including shootouts. It isn’t all on the forwards and it isn’t at all on Tom Renney’s supposed fixation on stifling creativity, though the coach’s tendency to shuffle personnel from line to line hasn’t helped.
Kalinin and his minus-17, which is worst among NHL defensemen, will be in the lineup tonight in Newark when the 19-10-2 Rangers face the rampaging Devils (15-8-2), winners of three straight (at Philadelphia, at Montreal, home against the Penguins) and eight of their last nine. So, too, will Rozsival and his minus-11, fifth poorest among blue-liners prior to last night’s games.
Nobody is being benched; at least not yet. No defenseman can be benched tonight with yesterday’s decision to return Corey Potter to the AHL Wolf Pack. It would, however, be a surprise if Potter is not recalled for next week’s trip to California, where the Rangers open with back-to-back games in Anaheim and Los Angeles on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Renney is not about benching veterans. That’s not his style. His loyalty to, belief in, and respect for players with NHL pedigree are his strength and his weakness.
That fits in this case, because the puck-moving defensemen who were supposed to be the Rangers’ strength have instead been the club’s biggest weakness.
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Rangers are 2-0 against Devils this season, 9-0-1 in their last 10 regular-season matches against New Jersey, 13-1-1 in the last 15 overall including last year’s first-round playoff wipeout. . . . Henrik Lundqvist is 14-2-4 lifetime against the Devils in the regular season. . . . Devils’ Scott Clemmensen is 0-1-1 against the Rangers, losing 4-2 at the Meadowlands on Nov. 3, 2005 and 3-2 in a shootout at the Garden two days later.