NHL Postseason Preview: Three Major Concerns for the Rangers

The first-place Blue Shirts have played a truly inspired brand of hockey this season, earning them prime playoff seeding for the first time since the '93-'94 campaign.  But none of it will matter if the squad cannot improve on three key weaknesses to their seemingly airtight approach.


I'd like to begin if I may with a brief moment of self-reflection, leading to a briefer moment of self-affirmation of identity.

This will be just the second post I've ever made on this pathetic excuse for a sports blog (which I seriously plan on improving in the immediate future).  It will also be the very first post I've ever done about the New York Rangers, and it comes in the midst of the best season they've had since I began watching them in 1995.

Captain Ryan Callahan and the New York Rangers have made
some truly remarkable strides this year...but that's not what
this post is about

I say this because what you are about to read will not be a celebration of their regular season success.  I will not be adulating their commitment to physical sacrifice in the shooting lanes, and their resultant league-best total in blocked shots.  I will not be commending their excessive toughness on the boards, their relentless pursuit on the forecheck, their willingness to dole out/receive the big hit, or their valor in hand-to-hand combat regardless of the size of their combatant (in other words, Brandon Prust is insane).  I will not be discussing how Ryan Callahan has forged himself into one of the three-best two-way players in hockey, or how Henrik Lundqvist continues to perform at a top-one-or-two goaltender level, or how the development of youngsters like Carl Hagelin, Derek Steppan, and Ryan McDonagh have been just as instrumental to the cause as the offensive talent of superstars Marion Gaborik and Brad Richards.

No, this article is going to focus on the things that the Rangers don't do well, the most glaring potholes in their game that may very well prevent them from hoisting Lord Stanley's Cup this year if not addressed.

Yes my friends, this compulsion to focus on flaws in the face of overwhelming achievement can only mean one thing: I am indeed a New York sports fan.

Let me follow that, and preface my "negative Nancy" diatribe by stating that no matter what the postseason outcome, I have thoroughly enjoyed the ride this team has taken me on for the past six months.  Even it ends in a first-round out to the Senators (the fan in me would like to extend a preemptive 'screw you' to Jason Spezza at this time), I will resist the urge to label the 2011-12 season a "failure."  As pessimistic and captious a Rangers fan I may appear to be, I refuse to be one of those fans who dismisses the first 82 minutes of an epic movie because the ending wasn't to my liking.  This team has reminded me of why I love to watch hockey, why I am proud to be a Rangers fan, and why the bond between man and sport team can be downright special (and corny when acknowledged in a large public forum such as the internet).  I have nothing but unconditional gratitude for this hockey club.

Now without further ado, here's what the Rangers suck at:

1) Overzealous Pinching by Defensemen


Yes, you read that correctly.  That is how I will start this critique.  Allow me to expound...

One of the more overlooked aspects of the Rangers offensive success this season was the uncanny ability of their defensemen to pinch on the boards at exactly the right time, and the equally uncanny ability of their forwards to cycle back to the blue line and cover the abandoned area.  This combination of timely pinching and speedy cycling was a huge part of their strong puck support game, and strong puck support is what led to the vast majority of their goals.  It is also how they drew penalties, but we'll get into why being on the power-play has actually hurt them at times.

In the early half of the season, the Rangers defense pinched
intelligently, leading to smiles like the ones above.  But the
latter half saw those smiles turn to odd-man rush induced frowns.

But ever since the All-Star Game, their defensemen have become increasingly overzealous when pinching, a problem that became especially pronounced in the final 20 games, give or take.  It lead to a countless number of odd-man rushes for the other team.  Needless to say, odd-man rushes are exactly the kind of thing you want to limit in the playoffs.

The February 16th loss to the Blackhawks stands as the prime example of when some poorly-timed pinching cost the Rangers the game.  On 3 of Chicago's 4 first-period goals, the defense soldiered down the boards to support the puck, either unaware or indifferent to the fact that all three forwards were trapped below the circles.  And before John Tortorella could finish one of his patented profanity-laced screeds, his team was down 4-0.

Now it is typical in the playoffs that teams become much more offensively conservative, particularly in regards to defensemen chipping in down low.  It was clear in last night's game that the Rangers were taking a much more conservative approach in that regard, but not conservative to the point of becoming offensively impotent.  They picked their spots well (especially Marc Staal, who I thought had a very nice overall game), allowing the forwards to work the cycle below the hashmarks, then stepping in near the blue line or pinching down low when the situation dictated.  They resisted their over-zealous urges in other words and avoided bottling themselves into odd-man rushes.

It was a smart approach, and it is exactly the kind of pick-and-choose pinching mentality that they must stick with for the duration of the postseason if they want to make a deep run.  Unfortunately, I'm not sure if there's as clear a way to ameliorate the next problem area...

2) Faceoffs

This has been a problem all year for the Rangers.  Their lack of a strong, quick-reflexed forward in the faceoff circle is obvious, especially when they go up against teams like Philadelphia and Boston.  Not too mention their first-round opponent Ottawa and Jason Spezza, second-best faceoff man in the league (909 wins for a 53.1 win percentage...again, I say 'screw you' sir).

I was never a fan of Chris Drury, but if there was one thing he knew how to do, it was win a faceoff.  Unfortunately, the boys have no one near as clutch as that.  Granted, Brad Richards has done a decent job, and Brian Boyle has shown definite improvement in that area.  Still, they don't have a guy that can consistently hold his own against the Spezzas, the Patrice Bergerons, and the Claude Girouxs in a critical spot.

Of course I'd be remiss not to mention the one team I recall burning them the most off the faceoff.  It is also the team that will probably win the Eastern Conference: the Pittsburgh Penguins.  With "Sid the Kid" back in full swing, this issue looms even larger should the Rangers and Penguins meet in the semi or conference finals.

Crosby is nothing short of the most clutch faceoff man in hockey, and he is especially adept at getting the big win on the power play in the offensive zone.  The Rangers will line up their best killing unit against him, meaning Boyle will be taking the puck drop.  I'll give you one guess as to how that matchup turned out in the regular season, and how will it turn out more times than not in the playoffs.

The solution?  Well, there isn't one really.  At this point, the Rangers are obviously stuck with what they have (unless they were ballsy enough to stick tag-along Chris Kreider in the circle to see what he can do).  Based on what we saw in Game 1, it seems like it's Richards, Boyle, and Dubinsky or bust.  They will have to do what they've done all year: hope that Lundqvist and the defense can thwart power plays like Pittsburgh's even when giving up consistent own zone faceoff wins.

Which segues nicely to the final problem area...

3) The Power Play / Brad Richards

Brad Richards holds the master key to jump-starting a dormant
Rangers power play, and maybe a sprint to the Stanley Cup

Ahhhh, the good old Rangers power play.  When hasn't their power play been an issue for them?  Ever since Adam Graves began making his largest contributions to the team philanthropically and not on the scoreboard, the Ranger power-play has continuously struggled.

This year it has shown flashes of quality play mixed with periods of futility.  The fact that they cannot win faceoffs with any regularity certainly doesn't help.

But even more to the point, it is as if the man-advantage doesn't suit their style of play.  This is largely because they do not have guys who can skate with the puck through the neutral zone while maintaining possession.  It is so much easier to set up your power play and generate shots to the net when you can bring the puck across the blue line cleanly and without having to dump it deep.

Sure, once the Rangers are able to get the saucer below the opponent's goal line, they are an outstanding puck possession team (because of that strong puck support I alluded to earlier), but in order to get it down there, they rarely carry it into the offensive zone.  Instead, they employ a steady regiment of dump-and-chase forechecking.  This might work on even strength, but on the power play, the opponent is looking to get a stick on the puck and fling as far down to the other end as possible.  It becomes much more difficult to establish position on the power play off the dump-and-chase formula because the other team can ice the puck at will.  And how many times have have I seen them dump it deep, only to watch the opposition beat them to the spot and heave it right back out of the zone?  Too many times to not bitch about it, evidently.

What's even more important to their key cog in the apparatus.  That man has been and will continue to be Brad Richards.  With his performance, so too goes the performance of their man-advantage.  He is the so-called "quarterback" of the power play, as hockey analysts these days love to say.

There will be a lot of pressure on him to move the puck to the right areas and get shots to the net when able.  Richards seemed to hit a mini-stride late in the season for a short stretch of games, and it appeared that he and the rest of the unit were really beginning to click in terms of their spacing and their anticipation.  But this chemistry dwindled again in the final couple of weeks.

To me, Richards and the first man-advantage unit will have to do better than the 0-4 they posted against the Senators Thursday.  If he and the rest of the first unit are able to recapture this mojo, then maybe,  just maybe, the Blue Shirts might have a shot of getting past the Penguins (making assumptions here) on their way to the finals.  It is the most crucial aspect of their game that they have to sure up, and it is the only well they will be able to keep up with Crosby, Malkin, Neal, and Dupuis.  It's not a matter of 'if' those guys score, but 'when,' and without some modicum of production from the power play, the Rangers don't stand a chance in a best of seven series.

Let's me not get too ahead of myself here.  They have to take care of business against Ottawa first and foremost.  I will be keeping track of their progress in these areas throughout the playoffs, as well as providing my oh-so-insightful perspective on the in-game developments.  Check back after Game 2 for another update.