We are at the All Star Break so that means the 2018-2019 season is half way over (technically, 7 games ago as 48 have been played…some teams are at 52). Let’s look at the standings and get to the New York Rangers. This is the Top 16*

*Carolina is tied with Buffalo, at 54 points, they are just outside of the Wildcard for the East. Not shown is Dallas and Colorado who are tied at 52 points, they are currently the wild cards for the west. Vancouver also has 52 but has more games played than

Now here is just the east division.

So let’s state the obvious, the Rangers are bad. There’s no more holding out hope. They are much better than they’re record shows. the potential is there but they struggle to play as a team. See those top teams? They play as a team (Tampa Bay’s record is obscene). If the Rangers consistently played as a team. they’d be around 56 points right now.

I don’t know what it is. New coach, rookie players who have a long way to go, vets who have bad habits from years of ineffective coaching and managment? Everything that has plagued this team since 2014-15, bad passing, face-offs, special teams, penalty killing, sloppy defense, stupid penalties and plays that turn into turnovers, are all still there. We don’t have consistent goal scorers, the droughts come in huge waves and the brain dead penalties just make everything more difficult. It makes everyone on the ice have to work harder and ruins any kind of positive momentum.

This is a rebuilding year. One of many, everyone knows that. It would have been a miracle to have made a championship team in one trade session and off-season. What we have is a team that is still missing pieces and most likely some drastic trades are coming by the deadline in February. Hayes and Zuccarello are on the top of the list and if some huge deal is dangled in front of management, Kreider with out a doubt in that group. All three of them are fan favorites and would be a huge morale loss (and we do need vets to lead the team). Plus, I think it would be crazy to do another full fire sale. There’s no point in trading already great players with the hope of hitting it big in the draft. That is a huge gamble.

When the team plays together, they are a ton of fun to watch. I’m saying this on the runners high of 3 wins in a row but any kind of win streak is rare. Zucc has had a really off season and it hasn’t been until the last 2 weeks where the professional has shown up. He’s way more active, way more aggressive and that leads to plays coming together.

Even if the Rangers have a better second half of a season, I don’t think they’re a playoff team. Getting into a wildcard spot would mean going up against Tampa Bay or Washington and that would be a slaughter. It’s not worth it.

Looking around, Vegas and Pittsburg had terrible starts and turned around their season, something we hoped the Rangers would do. The Islanders have hit their stride with their new coach (it’s insane Washington didn’t want to pay him what he wanted and deserves), they are a major threat. And look at Buffalo! They have been terrible forever and this season is a total turn around. They came out on fire, cooled off, get good results but the East division is so monsterous in talent that they are on the edge of the playoffs. Considering how many goals they score it’s surprising they aren’t in right now.

Still a lot to go but the front runners are very clear (look at Calgary and Toronto! It’s been a long time since Canadian teams have done so well). Who ends up in the wildcard slots should be interesting. The closer the trade line comes up the bigger moves we’ll see league wide.