Looks Like The Rangers Will Just Cruise For Hughes
Patience…
It’s a process…
This was always going to be a learning, developmental season…
LOSING EVERY FUCKING NIGHT STILL SUCKS
It’s been a rough start for rookie coach David Quinn & the NY Rangers who now sit at 3-7-1 with just a lone regulation win. While their first couple games were highly competitive and perhaps a little unlucky, the wheels have fallen off of late. A couple of 4-1 L’s sandwiched that one regulation W before the Kings took us back to June 2014 & dug out of a 2-goal deficit with a last-minute victory over Henrik Lundqvist. The defensive warts are no surprise, but it’s the offense that’s been a significant disappointment so far.
They’re a poor possession team – what else is new? But the Blueshirts are generating just as many scoring chances per-60 as they’re allowing & third-most of the “high-danger” variety in the league. They simply cannot finish at even strength as they tout the worst shooting percentage in the East (barely 6%). Now the law of averages suggests there’s most likely good things to come…but from who? Who’s a bona fide finisher on this roster after Zibanejad & Kreider? Zucc and Hayes are distributors. So is Spooner. Whatever Chytil’s gonna be, he’s certainly nowhere near there yet. Howden & Fast are grinders who get their chances off the forecheck. So…Vesey? Really? This is a big reason why I was all aboard the Oliver Wahlstrom draft train. Obviously he wouldn’t be helping today but the kid is the lethal goal scorer this franchise still seems to lack.
My biggest concern right now is Pavel Buchnevich. He should be that next guy. A common theme last season was how Vigneault kept the shackles on Buch & never gave him a fair shake at consistent, important minutes. Well we’ve got a new coach & plenty of opportunity on a rebuilding roster yet it’s more of the same. Despite being on a respectable but underwhelming 40-point pace, Buchnevich is sporting alarmingly poor fancy stats & involved in a team-low amount of scoring chances (by far). He’s been scratched & relegated to the end of the bench on more than one occasion. Quinn had a quote a couple weeks ago about some of his guys “thinking they’re playing hard but not actually knowing what it MEANS to play hard” which seemed directed at the 23 year-old Russian. If Buch doesn’t buy into ALL aspects of what his coaches demand, he’s not going to be handed a role where he’ll push his offensive ceiling. It’s his third year as a pro & he’s still got a long way to go before living up to the hype of a future reliable, top-6 scoring winger. This has gotta be his year.
That’s obviously not to say the entire burden of secondary scoring falls on Buchnevich. Ryan Spooner has been absolutely abysmal. Hayes has actually played very well all over the ice but simply needs to be better than 3 points in 11 games. Shattenkirk was supposed to bounce back & reclaim his role as a top point-producing blueliner but instead has been leapfrogged all over the depth chart by an undrafted 23 year-old. If the Rangers were going to have a promising season, they could hardly afford a single disappointment from key players – let alone several. It’s not even November though and it looks like the “Lose For Hughes” & “Play Like Craapo For Kaapo” campaigns are in full effect. I’m OK with that, I swear…
…but man, losing really fucking sucks.