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We’ve spent a lot of time talking about how the Rangers, as currently constructed, are not a team that is rich with depth. It’s something that we’ve discussed on about a weekly basis at this point, but depth is only a part of the problem. The issue of depth is easy to address, but that won’t matter if the star players on the Rangers roster do not contribute in the way they are supposed to.
Last season the Rangers relied heavily on Marian Gaborik and Brad Richards, and they delivered. They were the top two scoring leaders (76 points for Gaborik, 66 for Richards) on the team at even strength and on the powerplay, Gaborik led the team in goals (41), and Richards led the team in assists (41). Coming into this shortened season, these two were expected to at least contribute at that same level. Rick Nash was to come in and give them some breathing room and spread out the scoring a bit. Nash has lived up to his end of the bargain. Gaborik and Richards have not.
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- Over the last 19 games, New York is 10 for 52 on the power play.
- Arron Asham is the first player in NHL history to score a goal for each of the five teams in the Atlantic Division. (Via @Liam_McHugh)
- 11 of Mats Zuccarello’s 26 career NHL points have come on the power play, including 10 of his 18 assists.
- Zuccarello posted 11 goals and 17 assists in 44 games with Magnitogorsk of the KHL this season.
- Zuccarello is 5-10 lifetime in shootouts. Read more »
AP Photo/Mary Altaffer
In case you missed it, the Rangers re-signed Mats Zuccarello, who will likely join the club within the week. Zuccarello will bring some stability and scoring to the bottom-six, something that is desperately needed. The addition of Zuccarello will lead to some lineup changes. When all the pieces fall into place, the odd-man out is not who you might think it is.
It’s been very clear that the organization wants offensive talent to play alongside J.T. Miller on the third line, so it’s a logical assumption that these two will see some ice time together. Since Zuccarello is rather flexible and can play either wing, that opens up a few options for the Rangers. If Torts wants to try Miller at center, then the Rangers can try either Marian Gaborik (RW) or Chris Kreider (LW). Each line will have a lot of skill and speed, but the downside is that the trio will be defensively inept. The rest of the top-six remains the same.
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Carl Hagelin, even better than you think.
As the Rangers struggle to score goals, it is sometimes important to look past raw point and goal totals and give every player an even playing field. In hockey, that means taking counting stats like goals and making them into a goals (and points) per 60 minutes of ice time. A hockey game (generally) lasts 60 minutes, and since ice time varies by player, this puts everyone on an equal playing field to measure contribution based on ice time. The theory here is that players who get more ice time will score more, thus their counting stats will be higher. Making this a “per 60″ stat eliminates that variable.
To get a good gauge on how ice time really affects this, we first need to look at the raw totals for the Rangers (for players who have played at least 20 games) in addition to the evened out ratios per 60 minutes of ice time. The table below has some interesting results.
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The Rangers were busy this weekend, waiving both Jeff Halpern and Stu Bickel and recalling Kris Newbury from Connecticut. The three moves are, for all intents and purposes, minor moves. But these moves triggered a wide variety of questioning, celebrating, and rumormongering. It was actually very interesting to read all of the speculation Twitter, which included the now famous “Gaborik for Boyle and Clowe” rumor, which is just outright ridiculous*.
*-If this happens, I’ll eat my words. I will also build a Glen Sather statue of him holding 29 “pictures.” These “pictures” will be symbolic of the 29 naked photos he must have of all other GMs, because no GM has this ability to turn spare parts into something substantial as often as he does.
But without speculating, let’s look at the three moves themselves, as each was made for a reason. The easiest one is the Newbury call up. Although we discussed how Newbury would be a replacement for Halpern and Bickel, the call up is most likely due to the recent J.T. Miller injury. I doubt he would have been recalled if not for this injury.
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The trade master.
Yesterday, Suit discussed potential trade targets for the Rangers at the deadline, specifically addressing the case that Marian Gaborik gets traded. While the Rangers are indeed going to be aggressive at the deadline, they won’t pull the trigger on a trade unless they know the player they are getting fills a hole on the club. While everyone is enamored by the big names, sometimes it’s the smaller acquisitions that make the most difference, as they round out a team’s weaknesses.
The first major hole the Rangers need to address is a forward that is capable of putting the puck in the net. The big names that Suit discussed include Martin St. Louis and potentially Jarome Iginla, but there are several ways the Rangers can address this. The cheapest way is to acquire a third line forward, one that isn’t a star but is still a reliable offensive player. Since J.T. Miller is relatively versatile, the Rangers can look for a center or a RW (Chris Kreider has the LW spot) to fill this hole. There is a slight chance that Jesper Fast(h) can fill this hole, but I wouldn’t count on it.
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This past Tuesday I briefly spoke about the rumors surrounding Marian Gaborik and his apparent position on the trading block. As I said in the post, Gaborik’s skill set fits any system. Should he not be traded, I’d be perfectly fine with it. However, if we could land someone who fits the key ingredients to the Rangers team template (e.g., balance, skating ability, effort), then I’d be willing to move him.
In case you missed that post during the Blue Seat Blogs blackout of 2013, I humbly suggest you read it. Do it now. I’ll wait.
Whether or not you believe the “sources” to these rumors is your own judgment call. Personally, I think Kreider’s recall could determine Gaborik’s fate, if of course there’s a team interested in Marian that isn’t on his NTC. Why pay a guy $7.5M to be a 30 goal scorer on some nights (and a ghost on other nights) when you can pay Kreider $1.3M to be our coveted power forward in training?
Over the next few weeks, if Chris impresses offensively and isn’t a defensive liability, the loss of Gaborik may be worth it from a roster perspective and a cap perspective. If you still don’t buy the rumors, for the sake of the exercise, let’s see what kind of trades involving Gaborik may actually work.
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- The Rangers are just 4-10-1 against Eastern Conference opponents currently in the playoff picture.
- Chris Kreider has scored six goals and one assist for the CT Whale since being demoted just over two weeks ago.
- The Rangers are 11-5-1 when both Rick Nash and Marc Staal are in the lineup.
- The Rangers have allowed their opponents to score first in 18 of 28 games this season. They are 7-10-1 in those matches. (Via @RothmanHockey)
- Derek Stepan’s tying goal in the second period last night snapped a 129:55 team scoring drought. (Via @AGrossRecord)
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It’s all part of the plan.
Back in the offseason I spoke frequently about the Rangers need to acquire players who fit their team template. The three main ingredients needed to restock the Rangers were roster balance, skating, and effort. As the deadline approaches, the Rangers should stick to those three ingredients when evaluating their own team and what’s available on the marketplace.
As for Tortorella, you may not like his personality and you may disagree with his coaching systems and strategies, but whether he stays or goes (I vote he stays!), the foundation he’s laid for this roster should and likely will remain intact. With that said, let’s look at few pieces and see where upgrades could potentially be made.
Marian Gaborik
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The Rangers succeeded last year because they executed. They followed the system, they executed and they won. Many are looking at the coaching staff for the three game slide, but in reality it’s about execution from the players.
It’s been widely known that coach Tortorella uses a 2-1-2 forecheck, which is not a defensive system. It’s a bit of a misnomer, stating that Torts does play defense first. Many assume that defense first means trap, but our system is the exact opposite. The 2-1-2 means aggressive forechecking to create turnovers. It means attacking, not sitting back. I am not sure how attacking translates to stifling players ability to produce offense, as some angry fans have suggested.
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