The young season has already brought the noise back to the Rangers’ locker room and front office, with two main conflicts drumming up media buzz: Abysmal results on home ice, and Artemi Panarin’s pending free agency. For a team that surely was hoping for a quietly successful start to the year, things seem to already be starting on the wrong foot.
The massive, smelly elephant in the room for the foreseeable future will be Panarin, who has snapped out of his slow start with goals in his last two games and a dominant performance in Montreal, but has become firmly planted in the rumor mill, with major insiders Elliotte Friedman and Frank Seravalli throwing his name around quite frequently over the last week or so.
Over the summer I talked about Panarin and his pending free agency, and that his future with the team really comes down to whether or not he wants to be a part of the solution in New York and help the team move forward, back into cup contention. I still don’t think he owes the Rangers anything, he’s been the most electrifying skater I’ve watch as a Rangers fan, but in order for the relationship to continue to work, he would have to take a pay cut. At this point, that doesn’t seem likely to happen, so it’s back to square one- if the Rangers are sitting outside of a playoff position by the Olympic break, it’s time to start figuring out a landing spot for him via trade. To Elliotte’s point in the tweet above, I can’t imagine a world where Drury would ever consider dealing him to a division rival unless that was the only team he would waive his no move clause for, and even if that is the case, I could still envision Drury not pulling the trigger on that deal, in which case things would probably turn real ugly, real fast.
If there was any lesson to be learned from last season, however, it’s that keeping situations from turning ugly should be the number one priority this year, and one situation that’s already starting to border on ugly is the offensive production on home ice. Through 240 minutes of hockey on Garden ice the Rangers have managed one singular goal. Yes, one (1) goal.
What’s frustrating yet encouraging as a fan is that two of those games, the Washington and Edmonton games, were played very well by the Rangers in terms of having several high danger chances while limiting them effectively for the other team.
On top of that, Igor Shesterkin looks like he might be ready to drop his best body of work over the course of a season to date, which should practically guarantee him the Vezina Trophy.
The level of frustration in the room is certainly rising, and no matter how good a group is at managing emotions a situation like this could drive any player up a wall. The Rangers need Zibanejad to keep getting the looks he recently told an interviewer that he knows he’s getting, they’re just not going in. Alexis Lafreniere simply has to be better. The most recent game, a 3-1 loss to Minnesota, was straight up discouraging about there being a chance of Lafreniere finding his next level. He was completely invisible. Maybe he’s feeling the absence of Trocheck while he’s on LTIR, but he has to figure it out quick if that’s the case, because he won’t be back any time soon.
The positives outside of the games against Washington and Edmonton have all come on the road, where the Rangers have a 3-0-1 record through 4 and have managed plenty of goals, so if they keep playing the way they have been for the most part, things should naturally start turning in their favor. It’s just the law of averages. The hard part will be maintaining this style of play they’ve been employing, which is a game that we haven’t seen them play consistently in what feels like forever. Out chancing the opposition has not been a strong suit for this club, and Igor has been relied upon heavily as a result. They look much better in front of him allowing him to do his job to the best of his ability, and they have to continue that trend.
Their next game is at home against San Jose, who are winless through 6 contests, most recently losing a one goal game to the Islanders at UBS arena. They’ll be starving for a win and they have a potent, young offense, but struggle to keep the puck out of their own net. If the Rangers can slow them down, they certainly should be able to manage to squeak a few in. They need to get that building rocking early and often and snowball some offensive momentum, otherwise they will be plagued by the narrative that they simply can’t score goals, especially at home.
The Morning Skate 