Nash’s 2014 ‘disappearance’ a matter of poor puck luck
You ask, we answer. The Post is fielding questions from readers about New York’s biggest pro sports teams and getting our beat writers to answer them in a series of regularly published mailbags. In today’s installment: the Rangers.
Do you have a theory/explanation for Rick Nash’s disappearance during the 2014 Cup run? I know he did a lot of other things well, but he barely scored. Was he hurt and not telling anyone? — Jared Behr
Nash didn’t disappear at all, he just could not score. Which, for a marquee player acquired to be the missing goalscoring piece in the playoffs, might be interpreted as disappearing.
The winger led the playoffs with 83 shots but in scoring only three goals established a dubious distinction that he still holds as the only forward in Stanley
Cup playoff history with as many as 80 shots in a postseason with a shooting percentage of under 4.0 percent (3.6). Actually, Nash is the only forward with 80-plus shots with a playoff shooting percentage of under 5.7, per Hockey-Reference. (The following year, 2015, Nash again led the tournament with 69 shots while scoring five goals, doubling his shooting percentage to 7.2.)
Was The Big Easy taking bad-angle shots? Were his shots coming from the outside? To a degree, as Nash was still protecting himself after being concussed early in the season on a Brad Stuart headshot. Was he, in the vernacular, squeezing his stick too tight? Maybe. Probably. He just couldn’t score. Couldn’t, indeed, put the puck in an empty net, as evidenced by Slava Voynov’s desperation, midair, stick-shaft block of Nash’s one
timer from the right circle 9:14 into the second overtime of Game 5 of the final in LA. The Rangers lost the game, and thus the series, five minutes later.
Do you see the Rangers trying to trade up in the draft to get Quinton Byfield? He’s big, fast, and plays center. Do you think their two 1stround picks would get this done?
— John Lomonaco I doubt that the projected secondoverall selection would be available at almost any price and I am certain that two mid-to-late-round firsts wouldn’t come close to sealing the deal.
The draft lottery notwithstanding, if the NHL goes directly to a 24-team playoff, will the current draft order be affected and if so how? — Jeff Garrigan
If NHL goes to the 24-team Cup format, would the Rangers be better off being squeezed out (and then having a chance in the lottery), or would playoff experience serve the team better? — Bob Hunt
One would assume that the seven clubs left out of a 24-team tournament would be in the lottery but the NHL has not finalized plans for the lottery. I am reasonably confident that if Rangers president John Davidson and general manager Jeff Gorton were each given a dose of sodium pentothal, they would both opt for a shot at the lottery and claiming the first-overall pick rather than being included in the tournament.
I know the 24-team playoff proposal is mostly about revenue, but wouldn’t the league be embarrassed if the 20-24 upset one of the top teams, never mind won the Cup? — John Russo
Was the league embarrassed when the 13th-overall Kings won the Cup in 2012? Was the league embarrassed when the 13th-overall, 98-point Blue Jackets swept the Presidents’ Trophy-winning, 128-point Lightning in the first round last year?
In a 24-team playoff format that includes the Rangers, with all of the time off and a relatively short training period to get ready, do you give them any kind of advantage against older teams because of their younger legs? — Mike W
I’d give the team with the fewest key players testing positive for COVID-19 the advantage.
Who in the Rangers organization is most responsible for the incredible (and quick) farm system turnaround (specifically the Hartford Wolf Pack)? — Sean Carroll
The organizational emphasis on development is the overarching theme here, but much of the credit for the Wolf Pack’s impressive 2019-20 belongs to first-year coach Kris Knobloch and his staff of assistants featuring Gord Murphy (associate head coach), Eric Raymond and Brock Ballard.