Rangers continue to struggle with sustained offensive pressure: ‘It’s been the same story’
After another loss Sunday night, 3-2 to the St. Louis Blues, the New York Rangers are desperately searching for answers as to how they can jumpstart their game. Now having lost 10 of their past 13 games, time seems to be running out for the Rangers, the same group which was two wins away from a Stanley Cup Final appearance just seven months ago.
One of the Rangers biggest flaws most of the season has been an inability to maintain sustained pressure in the offensive zone. The majority of their chances come on rush opportunities, and most of them are nowhere near grade-A looks. The issue lies in what comes next. There’s no forecheck, no fight for puck battles, and then they’re back on their heels defending.
“It’s been the same story, right?”, defenseman Adam Fox said postgame Sunday “Just kind of one and done in the O-zone, haven’t sustained many cycles, many shifts with sustained pressure to make them defend. Just kind of comes right back at us and bites us in the ass.”
The best offensive showing the Rangers have had in this 3-10-0 stretch was a five-goal effort against the Seattle Kraken, but even that was an ugly 7-5 loss. In the past four games, the Rangers have scored seven goals and are 1-3-0 in that span. No matter what coach Peter Laviolette does to the lines, whether it means a tweak here and there, or throwing them in the blender as seen in St. Louis, the Rangers still struggle to generate consistent offense.
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Rangers searching for answers, ‘at some point it’s got to be wins’
What started as a rough patch has quickly snowballed into a season-altering stretch. At this rate, the Rangers are trending towards a lottery pick, rather than a team looking to get over the hump of the Eastern Conference Final. It seems like at this point it is becoming more of a mental game than anything for New York.
“I don’t even know how to describe the feeling right now,” Fox said. “It’s definitely not good. We talk, we talk as a group and say just try to be engaged. It definitely wears on you when you’re in kind of a streak like this.”
Time and time again, the Rangers have been spending the majority of the game chasing, rather than setting the tone themselves. On Saturday against the Los Angeles Kings, it was a 5-0 deficit answered with one goal that brought a sarcastic cheer from a dejected Madison Square Garden crowd. On Sunday, it was a 3-0 hole which saw a nice attempt at a comeback with third-period goals from Brett Berard and Will Cuylle, but once again, it was too little too late. And where were the Rangers first 50 minutes of the game?
“We’ve definitely been deflated in games and you can see it just spirals,” Fox explained. “It’s been a lot of the same messaging and same words, but at some point it just has to be wins. You come back and score two, and you can come back and say good effort, but at some point it’s got to be wins and it’s got to be two points. It doesn’t matter how, and we’re just not doing that right now.”
The Rangers, now 15-14-1, are lucky to still be one point out of a wild-card spot. However, they are eight points back of a top-three spot in the Metropolitan Division. So, while they can absolutely still turn things around this season, time is ticking before moves are made. There are 53 games remaining in the regular season.
The Rangers have a chance to get a win on the road in Nashville on Tuesday when they face the Predators who are last in the NHL with an 8-17-6 record. If anyone has performed below expectations more than New York, it’s been Nashville. After adding Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault, and Brady Skjei, things have not gone according to plan.
We’ll have to see if the Rangers can earn what should be a surefire victory. New York did lose to the last-place Chicago Blackhawks just a week ago, so this game should not be taken lightly by any means.
But perhaps the Rangers can begin making strides by playing a more complete offensive game, and sticking to the basics of hard work, winning puck battles and being positionally sound. Again, we’ll see. They haven’t been able to do that pretty much all season.
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