Twenty Games In

With the Rangers 21st game tonight, the 2009-2010 season is a quarter of the way through. Overall, the Rangers have been rather inconsistent, but I’ll definitely take 11-8-1 heading into Game 21 tonight against Washington. This year’s squad was, for all intents and purposes, brand new. They had just 12 players return from last year, and only 10 skaters. That leaves eight new skaters for the Rangers this year, in addition to a new coaching staff. Suffice it to say, these Rangers were going to be different from last year’s version.

The Rangers got off to the hottest start in the NHL, losing a nail-biter to Pittsburgh in the opener before running of seven straight wins. After that, the Rangers have been playing below .500 hockey, at 4-7-1 as of October 19. This stretch has made the Rangers frustrating to watch, especially that clunker against the Thrashers that I attended.

But, despite the inconsistency, there have been clear cut positives and negatives about this team, so let’s rattle off a few of the positives:

Primary Scoring: The additions of Marian Gaborik and Vinny Prospal really propelled this Ranger offense into a new realm. Both are scoring at greater than a point per game, and Gaborik has been tearing it up, with 13 goals and 12 assists through just 18 games. Prospal is amongst the leaders in assists with 16.

Powerplay: Four names: Ales Kotalik (3-10-13), Michael Del Zotto (3-7-10), Gaborik (6-3-9) and Prospal (2-6-8). Forty points on the powerplay between these four. That puts the Rangers at 10th place in the NHL on the powerplay at 22.2%, scoring on 18 or 81 chances. And to think, whenever the Rangers got a powerplay last year, I was hoping Renney would forfeit the powerplay and just play even strength. Another added bonus? Just 1 short-handed goal allowed so far.

Penalty Kill: No Blair Betts? No Freddie Sjostrom? No problem. The Rangers are still one of the top in the league at killing penalties, killing off 79 of 92 penalties taken so far. That 85.9% rate is good for third in the league.

Goaltending: Sure, there have been a few softies (Niklas Backstrom anyone?). But Henrik Lundqvist is still a top-3 goaltender in the league. Steve Valliquette has been pulling his weight too, except for that clunker against San Jose.

Considering their record in the past 12 games, it’s clear that not everything is OK in Ranger-land. So let’s analyze some of those “areas for improvement”:

Penalties: The Rangers have been shorthanded a whopping 92 times this year. That’s the second most times in the league, only Anaheim has been shorthanded more. The Rangers need to be more disciplined. It also couldn’t hurt to have the Sean Avery bias end. But I feel like that’s too much to ask. All these hooking, holding, and tripping penalties need to stop though.

Defense: It is never a good thing when your two best defensemen are rookies. If it weren’t for Matt Gilroy, Michael Del Zotto, and to a lesser extent, Wade Redden, this team would be in shambles. Marc Staal has been uncharacteristically inconsistent and weak, and it’s been tough to tell who’s been worse; Michal Rozsival or Dan Girardi. While Staal has been prone to the epic turnover, Girardi and Rozsival have just been awful, and haven’t been able to adjust to the new John Tortorella style of play.

Secondary Scoring: Ryan Callahan? Sean Avery? Ales Kotalik at even strength? Enver Lisin? Chris Drury (pre injury)? Christopher Higgins? Hello? Where have you gone?

Fatigue: The Rangers played an incredibly condensed schedule to start the year, and now after a span of three games in ten days, they will hit another condensed portion of the schedule. When your top players are playing at even strength, the powerplay, and the penalty kill, at a tune of anywhere between 20-28 minutes per game, fatigue starts to become a factor. They can’t do much about the schedule, but the fourth line is going to have to start earning more playing time. Which brings me to…

The Fourth Line: The Rangers fourth line has been relatively abysmal. Donald Brashear and Aaron Voros are supposed to be standing up for their teammates. But yet Lundqvist gets run at least three times a period every game, Chris Drury gets blind-sided and is now out indefinitely, and every one and their mother is taking a run at Avery, yet where are Voros and Brashear? Clearly not sticking up for their players. Brashear was supposed to be a deterrent for teams. Yet, no one seems to care that he’s on the bench.

Injuries: Ok, this isn’t something the Rangers can really help. Injuries happen, it’s hockey. But the Rangers have lost Gaborik and Lundqvist for a few games earlier in the year, and we saw how they did without them. Now, the Rangers are facing an indefinite amount of games lost from both Drury and Brandon Dubinsky, depleting an already thin centering corps.

So what can the Rangers do to help right this sub-.500 ship?

Well, for starters, let’s see some more consistent defense. A part of the problem with Marc Staal’s slipping has been his trying to implement more of an offensive game to fit the John Tortorella style. He needs to focus more on the defensive aspect so he can become that shut down defensemen we have seen from him in the past. Let Del Zotto carry the burden of scoring from the blueline, he can handle it.

The captain, when he returns, and the alternate captain need to step it up. Drury and Callahan have a combined 13 points so far this year. That is unacceptable. They need to put pucks in the net, and they need to do it yesterday.

Finally, stay out of the box! When the best players are out killing penalties, they get tired and can’t put the puck in the net at even strength. Enough lazy penalties.

The Rangers sit at 11-8-1, which is good for seventh in the East so far. But just to put things in perspective, they are currently tied with the Islanders for 4th in the Atlantic.