LISTEN, there are no quick fixes available.
The Rangers are losers of two straight in regulation, and are 4-5-1 in their last 10. And they will struggle as long as Michal Rozsival and Wade Redden – the two defensemen who receive the most ice time – play to the inferior standard they have established the first quarter of the season.
Rozsival’s game has gone from bad to worse. Redden’s has gone from bad to somewhat better to worse after a relapse the last two matches. Neither is the least bit physically involved. (Wait, that’s what both are – the least bit physically involved.)
Neither has been acute reading the rush. Neither has been decisive with the puck. Neither has been able to make the power play hum.
At the same time, neither has been benched for so much as an even-strength shift by coach Tom Renney. Neither has been scratched.
That’s not possible with the Rangers carrying the minimum six defensemen so that GM Glen Sather can burn up to $3.6M of cap space every night on three scratched forwards.
Understand this: As desperately as the Rangers need Mats Sundin, and as difficult as it would be to create the space with which to sign him, it becomes that much more problematic every day Sather keeps expensive spare parts Petr Prucha ($1.6M) and Patrick Rissmiller ($1M) on the roster. (The latter has twice cleared waivers.)
The Coyotes and Wayne Gretzky are at the Garden tonight, and though Renney won’t be able to tap No. 99 on the shoulder in order to send him out between Markus Naslund and Nikolai Zherdev, the coach likely will have the option of doing the same with Scott Gomez.
And if Renney does have that option with Gomez, who more likely than not will rejoin the lineup after missing five games in order to allow an ankle stress fracture to heal, it is well past time he does just that.
It is imperative that the Rangers, who lack a go-to forward such as You Know Who in Siberia (Jaromir Jagr), finally unite their most talented center with their most talented wingers. Anything else is a byproduct of overthinking.
Gomez skated between Chris Drury – who left the ice for a short time after being ridden hard against the boards by Redden, of all people – and Ryan Callahan for much of yesterday’s practice, while Zherdev and Naslund flanked Brandon Dubinsky. If this is the look Renney intends to present tonight, it makes no sense.
Playing almost exclusively with Dubinsky, Zherdev has scored in only one of the last 10 games. Dubinsky, meanwhile, has recorded four points (all assists) in 13 games since a puck banked in off his skate in Columbus on Oct. 14. The sophomore center has seven points (1-6) in his last 18 games.
Dubinsky did fine last season with Jagr, but the Alaska Kid was largely along for the ride. The burden always was on No. 68. Now the burden has shifted to Dubinsky, though he’s not quite ready for it in his second NHL season.
Gomez, however, is ready for the responsibility. He’d better be. He’s the playmaker. He’s the puck-carrier. He’s the skater. He’s the dispatcher. He’s getting paid $50M over seven years.
And he’s the lone Ranger with the requisite talent to bring out the best in Zherdev and Naslund.