After a hot start, the Rangers have been humbled. They’re 1-4-1 in their last six games with a few real stinkers mixed in against New Jersey, Ottawa and most recently Los Angeles.
The neutral zone and defensive zone look eerily similar to last year’s nightmare season, with breakaways and half breakaways galore. Before I carve into the goaltending, it’s worth noting the team defense has been nowhere near good enough.
Over the last six games, the Rangers have allowed 28 goals, or 4.67 per game. Three were empty netters, but even without them, it’s a big jump from the 1.75 per game over the first eight.
Here’s what stands out. Shots against are averaging 29.3 per game, which is normal volume. When the volume looks normal but goals against have more than doubled, the problem is either the quality of the chances or the goaltending. Most of these goals have come at even strength, and the eye test says they’re stemming from breakdowns through the neutral zone.
The Pettersson-Durzi pairing has unraveled a bit as of late. The pair got split up after LA’s first goal, when Taylor Ward walked right through both of them just a few minutes into the first period.
Braden Schneider moved up with Pettersson, and Durzi finished with Alberts Smits. Sullivan admitted they’ve been struggling, with Durzi apparently dealing with something physical, but they were back together at practice today. Hopefully the break between Monday’s game and Sunday’s will serve as a much needed reset.
In net, Dylan Garand has been a mixed bag since he was handed the reins. He’s been serviceable, but it feels like the league has started to figure him out. More film to dissect, more tendencies to exploit and a targeted game plan to go with it. To me, rebound control is increasingly an issue. Or maybe it’s just the mental fatigue of starting nine games in 18 days in one of the league’s biggest markets. The fact of the matter is this guy has never dealt with this kind of physical and mental strain in his career so far.
Enter the James Reimer experiment. It’s the kind of experiment you rope your parents into the night before the science fair, with no semblance of a hypothesis, let alone a poster board. I mean, what are we doing?
To be fair, Reimer has had a respectable NHL career, no doubt about it. He was drafted in the fourth round in 2006 and has posted a 232-191 record since, with stints on eight different teams. He has now started two straight seasons on a tryout deal and worked his way back to an NHL contract both times. In his introductory media availability with the Rangers, he said he’s “at peace with his career.” He went on to say he doesn’t need to play, but rather he wants to play, and when he didn’t have a contract, he would only consider a good situation that suited his family.
Has he earned the right to speak his mind and decide his future this way? Certainly. But does that sound like someone with a burning desire to win? Someone who deserves the crease for the New York Rangers? Not at all.
And regardless, the debut was dreadful. The first two shots he faced resulted in goals and he ended up allowing three goals on eight shots against the Kings on Monday night before getting pulled after one period. There are beer league tendies who could step in and do a better job.
The third goal, off the stick of Drew Doughty, was particularly infuriating. I’m no Dave Starman or Steve Valiquette when it comes to evaluating goalies, but the way he moved in the crease and tracked the puck was beyond pedestrian. Doughty was skating by his own bench giving knucks before Reimer realized the puck was in the net.
Later, the MSG broadcast cut to him on the bench smiling from ear to ear after being pulled and that’s where I’m completely out on Reimer. Send this guy to the moon.
The context here is that we’ve been spoiled as Rangers fans, going from Henrik Lundqvist to Igor Shesterkin, with Mike Richter before them both. World-class positioning, mental fortitude, hockey IQ, edgework, competitiveness, the list goes on. Whatever d-corps is in front of them, whichever coach is behind the bench, it almost doesn’t matter. The Rangers have a chance to win on any given night simply because of who’s in between the pipes. That’s all you can ask for as a fan.
Which is why seeing James Reimer in a Rangers sweater, smiling on the bench after getting lit up like a Christmas tree, feels like a splash of cold water to the face.
I’m extremely hesitant to make Joonas Korpisalo out to be a savior, but he’s on his way back and should be a clear upgrade over Reimer. The word is that he’s skating with the team and the timeline for return is probably in the next 1-2 weeks. The most likely outcome is a split with Garand, a far more sustainable tandem than the hope and pray strategy of asking one guy to be Superman every other night, which is exactly what nine starts in 18 days amounts to.
But swapping goalies only treats the symptom. The shot volume looks about normal, but the goals against have more than doubled, and those breakaways and half breakaways aren’t purely a goaltending problem. In my last piece, I said the ship had a hole in the starboard but wasn’t sinking yet. Well, the duct tape is starting to peel, and it’s going to take a group effort to patch it.
Lundqvist and Igor made it easy to forget that goaltending can only cover for so much. Even the best of the best can’t plug a leak this big for 84 games. Until the defense tightens up, it won’t matter who’s in net.
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