Tim time for Rangers
HREE consecutive defeats do not equate a crisis, even if it’s for the first time all year, even if it’s in March, even if the division and conference leads have been sliced to four points with four weeks to go.
The Rangers haven’t turned inept, old or slow in the blink of an eye, but they sure do appear vulnerable, the most part been chasing in the offensive zone.
The heart isn’t the issue, and not even the head. It’s the legs. Dan Girardi is beaten up, his game a tad off the All-star caliber he displayed through the first four months, the short breakout pass not delivered as quickly or crisply. Michael Del Zotto, nursing a hip injury, has been in and out, and may be for the foreseeable future.
Marc Staal still is on the one-step forward, two-steps back, one-step-forward escalator on which the team is along for the ride. Steve Eminger has not regained the consistency he showed before separating his shoulder in mid-december while Anton Stralman is an in-betweener in every sense, not quite tough enough, not quite effective enough with the puck to merit big minutes and considerable responsibility at this time of the year with the stakes so high.
This is the time for the Rangers to reach down into the AHL to recall 21-yearold freshman pro Tim Erixon to provide a dose of fresh legs and energy into a lineup that could use both, and for an injection of puck movement from the back end that’s his forte.
As the Rangers open what likely is to a determinative seven-game homestand tonight against the Islanders, the case can also be made to give Erixon an opportunity on the point of the power play, which is on another one of these 1-for-17 stretches that seems to have been played on a bigscreen, season-long loop.
Erixon wasn’t quite ready when he opened the season with the Blueshirts, not quite physically prepared for the grind. But he appeared far more comfortable and poised when promoted for a fourgame stretch around Christmas and has developed in his game on the smaller North American rink and in the more chaotic AHL these last three months with the Whale.
The Rangers need to find out about Erixon, anyway. They’re going to need a complement of defensemen in order to get through the grind of a long playoff run during which injuries become more the rule and less the exception the warmer the weather turns.
This is the time for a late season audition, the time for the move from offBroadway to Broadway. The admirable cast, banged-up and weary, needs some help. The Rangers need some fresh legs. Erixon has two. This too: I’m befuddled John Scott, an earnest enough fellow who is willing for sure, has somehow become the 13th forward in the organization.
It seems somewhat odd Mats Zuccarello just cannot play in the NHL. Maybe he can’t. There are, after all, educated people with the best interests of the organization at heart paid to make these decisions who have watched Zuccarello all season, but I must say, I find it strange a Rangers team always looking for pace and creativity doesn’t have a minute to spare for him.