Current issues are what doomed Blueshirts’ year
SO Yes, the Rangers are undermanned, demoralized and going down as metaphorically bloody as Butch and Sundance did in Bolivia.
But before spending too much sympathy on the Blueshirts, we would all be wise to remember games like this weekend’s twin drubbings in Ottawa on Saturday by a score of 6-3 to the Senators and at the Garden on Sunday, 7-4 to the Flyers, are every bit as much the cause as the effect of management’s Feb. 8 For Sale decree.
These defensively deficient and delinquent performances are the common thread that not only bind this season, but the past three. They are only more garish now that Henrik Lundqvist, finally buckling following three months of brilliance, has been only equal parts solution and problem in the weeks following the Winter Classic.
That is an equation that cannot add up for the Rangers, 5-14 since defeating the Sabres at Citi Field on Jan. 1, with this defeat marking the club’s second four-game losing streak to accompany two threegame stumbles over the past six weeks. The Blueshirts have allowed five goals or more in nine of the 19. They have surrendered five goals, four times; six, three times; and seven, twice during that span.
The trade deadline, of course, is exactly one week away. The club has been placed on no uncertain notice that trauma is coming. This has created a wave of uncertainty within the room that apparently is spilling onto the ice.
Or maybe not.
“It’s different for me, so I’m not sure that I can say that,” said Rick Nash, who knows he will be gone by the 3p.m. deadline on Feb. 26. “I’m on the inside looking out and I know that I’m not talking about it when I’m in here. It is not a topic.
“The way I see it is that we’re just not playing a system in our end and we’re giving up way too [many] odd-man chances because of the way we’re playing in the offensive zone. We’re not giving ourselves a chance to win games.”
This is Lundqvist’s 17th pro season, 13 here after four in Sweden playing for Frolunda. He has gone to the playoffs every year of his career except in 2009-10, when the Rangers were eliminated from contention with a shootout defeat to the Flyers in their final game. Thus, he has never faced a situation like this in his pro hockey life.
“It’s terrible,” he said. “Absolutely terrible.”
Pulled from Saturday’s start after allowing five goals on 27 shots in 47:25, Lundqvist allowed seven goals on 37 shots in this one. This is the third time in his NHL career that he’s allowed as many as five apiece in consecutive starts after allowing six in two straight at MSG to the Maple Leafs and Islanders in the second and third games of 2014-15 and five apiece in Anaheim and San Jose late last March after missing nearly three weeks with a hip injury.
“I have to start with myself [and] somehow find the energy and confidence to play [my] game,” said Lundqvist, 2-9 with a 4.32 GAA and .875 save-percentage since Jan. 21. “It’s hard. I talked about it [Saturday] where you try and convince yourself you’re doing the right things out there.
“But it’s hard to when you give up so many goals to stay confident and make that extra save — or even to be solid.”
Lundqvist leads the NHL with 51 appearances and is tied atop the leaderboard for starts with 50. He is third in minutes played. The mental fatigue of dealing with this type of team-wide failure for the first time in his career has extracted more of a toll than facing volumes of glorious chances night after night after night.
It’s wearing on everyone. The Rangers seem helpless, and with 19 games remaining are likely only midway through an epic tailspin that will bring clarity to the race in which the Blueshirts are participating.
And that is the race to improve its odds in the Entry Draft lottery. Seventh from the bottom of the league with .983 points-earnedper-game, the Rangers would have a 6.7 percent chance at hitting the Rasmus Dahlin first-overall jackpot and a 20.9 percent chance of moving into the top three if they go no higher. Ottawa, sixth from the bottom and in range at .895 pointsper, would have a 7.6 percent shot at Dahlin and a 23.4 percent shot at a top-three.
Those are numbers that are pertinent for the Rangers. If the deadline can’t come quickly enough, neither can the draft.