30-16-3

A loss to Vegas and a win against Ottawa bring the New York Rangers team skidding into the All Star break. While the 7-2 win over Ottawa was fun to watch and a good sign, it was expected because Ottawa is last in the league. Plus it was a rally game, Rangers being down 2-0 in the 2nd period. I don’t think they would have been allowed back in New York if they didn’t win.

Still, scoring 5 goals in the 2nd period is a good sign. They were finally able to take advantage of an opposing team’s mistakes and make accurate shots. Once their own mistakes stopped (Miller’s horrific pass attempt that turned into a breakaway and goal) the misery largely stopped. It did look like the Rangers team from November was back on the ice.

But that team wasn’t there for Vegas. Or San Jose (!) or the recent .500 stretch of games. There’s serious dysfunction that needs to be fixed and that’s a tall order. Especially with Filip Chytil being done for the season. He played 10 games this season and got a concussion. After 3 months it looked like he was a week or two away from coming back when he had another episode at practice. It’s unclear what happened, he was on the ice in a no-contact capacity with 2 teammates and he went down and could not get back up on his own for many minutes. His goal is now to come back for the 2024 season and we all wish him well in his recovery.

This means a 3rd line center is now needed along with an excellent right wing and defense man. With Chytil’s contract money now being able to be used, that gives Drury around $4.8 million to get all of that done. I don’t there’s much room to work with on prospects or draft picks to trade. Some players whose contracts are up next season could be used as trade chips. The fact is with the defense being so bad and the top players being ice-cold, big moves could be coming to keep this season from going underwater. Many of the top players have huge contracts and no move clauses so they aren’t going anywhere. That makes the younger players susceptible to being moved. The pressure is going to be turned up come February 5th. Some guys could be playing to stay in New York. Prove that this is a rut and not a systemic problem.

Chris Drury has a lot to figure out and soon. I don’t think there are many really good centers on the trade block, so there likely will be tough negotiations needed and the Rangers may only have enough assets for 2 players. If things don’t get sorted, a lot of jobs could be on the line next season. The core that’s been here since 2018 (Kreider, Trouba, Zibanejad, Miller, Lindgren) will likely have their final seasons.

With limited outside movement available, what about blowing up the lines? Is this a coaching issue? Does Laviollete need to be more aggressive? Gallant refused to change lines or do much coaching at all and that got him the axe. There’s been this weird multiple-year-long stubbornness to keep a lot of pairings together (Kreider/Zibanejad, Fox/Lindgren, Trouba/Miller) no matter what. I don’t think it would be the end of the world to break them up to see if new chemistry can be made with new lines. Since there are so few on-ice reactions now, why wouldn’t you change the regents to see if something sparks? For example, Lindgren is hurt and Zac Jones was called up. Trouba is suspended 2 games for clocking a Vegas player with an elbow and this 27-year-old 6′ 4″ monster named Connor Mackey was called up. Jones has been wobbly every game he’s been called up for this year but he played by far his best game against Ottawa with Panarin. Mackey, I have no idea where he came from, but he came to play. He was flying out there throwing his weight around and got into a fight with one of the roughest players in the league, Brady Tkachuk, and held his own. He was like a lit match out there and he inspired the team to keep charging forward as a unit. It was awesome.

Please, give us more of that.