The New York Rangers’ penalty killing unit has been abysmal this year.
They look out of sync. There are missed coverages galore. At this point, it is completely unclear to determine whether the fault lies with the coaching system or the players involved. If blame is to be put on the coach, then there has been a serious miscalculation in personnel, letting key role players such as Brian Boyle, Anton Stralman and Carl Hagelin walk.
If it is on the players, well, then there has been a serious miscalculation in personnel valuing the likes of Tanner Glass, Kevin Klein and Dan Girardi over Brian Boyle, Anton Stralman and Carl Hagelin.
Any way you spin it, the Rangers are not what they purport to be.
They currently have the 26th best penalty kill in the National Hockey League. For an alleged “Cup Contender” with one of the “best defenses in the league,” that stinks. Big time.
They are operating at a 77.7% success rate. They last time they dipped under the 80% mark was in 2003-2004, when they were 79.4% successful. That year, they were 29th in the league in penalty killing and had only 69 points in the standings.
In 2001-2002, the Rangers were dead last in the league at 79.9%. The year before, 78.5%.
The last time they were worse than 77.7%? 1988-1989, when they had a 77% success rate. The Oilers led the league with 82.8% that year, which would be tied for eighth this season. They have dipped below the 80% mark three other times since (’96-’97, ’90-’91, ’89-’90).
Their penalty kill has been an unmitigated disaster. Why limit fault to just one party? Quite literally everyone is to blame, from general manager Jeff Gorton to head coach Alain Vigneault to the last man on the roster.
Daniel Paille has mercifully been waived and sent to Hartford after a useless stint as “penalty kill specialist.” Marek Hrivik has since been called up in his place, and has not been scored on in about three and a half minutes of kill time.
Let’s go to the video tape.
Take a look at this powerplay goal from Kyle Palmieri scored last week in a 5-2 loss. This is appalling, and it is entirely on the lack of communication between Dan Girardi and Kevin Klein.
No one is even looking at Kyle Palmieri. Viktor Stalberg is covering the point man along the boards. Derek Stepan is marking Travis Zajac to prevent the one timer. Fine. Dan Girardi is flailing his stick trying to pin the puck-carrier. The problem is that Girardi does not take a step towards his man. He stays back, allowing him time and space to find the right pass. If you as a unit are going to put all your pressure on the puck side, there has to be actual pressure on the puck carrier.
Kevin Klein flops down to his knees, which allows a perfect saucer pass to an open Palmieri who not only gets a shot, he gets his own rebound right in the crease. Pitiful.
Here’s Troy Brouwer’s powerplay goal from last night, with the same unit subbing Marc Staal for Girardi.
Jay Bouwmeester has the puck on the left wing. Even though Viktor Stalberg is up high, Stepan decides he too wants to defend against a pass to the blueline, leaving Royal Road wide open. Paul Stastny receives the pass, sends a wrister to the net, and Brouwer picks up the rebound.
If Derek Stepan is going to be out of position, at least there’s $8.6 million worth of defensemen guarding the net, right?
This is at the time of the pass. Marc Staal is not even facing the right way. He’s not guarding a man, he’s not in a position to block the incoming shot, and he’s not close enough to the net to clear a rebound.
It’s that kind of inability to get in passing lanes that teams like Washington will jump on. For example…
Dan Girardi is looking directly at the man he is supposed to be covering in the slot, yet choosing to spectate from the far wing. And if you think this is an isolated incident…
…it’s not.
The pyramid needs to be shifted completely to the right to block even one passing lane.
It is the Rangers’ own indecisiveness that ultimately gets them into trouble. They repeatedly place themselves into no-man’s-land, guarding areas of ice that are not pressuring from the top of the circles up and are not covering from the bottom of the circles and down. It allows for time and space for the puck-carrier and the execution of tic-tac-toe passing, like Palmieri’s goal above, or this one scored by Alex Ovechkin.
Ryan McDonagh is preventing nothing. He is a warm body on the ice, not remotely close enough to Nick Backstrom to try and force a mistake or even just throw a hit, and he is not down by the net to tie up Johansson should the puck reach the doorstep. Backstrom of course finds Johansson, who wires the puck out to Ovi despite a sprawling effort from Dylan McIlrath. Dom Moore forgets about Ovi for a split second and the world’s best sharpshooter picks his corner. 4-3 Caps.
Leaving men open by the net is a huge problem as well. Let’s compare two different scenarios that have a similar problem. The first is from a game against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Columbus has the puck at the far wing, and to New York’s credit, there does look to be a man bearing down on the puck carrier. So, a shot is put on net. It gets through Girardi, who for some reason is in that no-man’s land position and not clearing the crease. Ryan McDonagh could theoretically be quicker to the man, but he does not want to overly crowd Hank in the crease and screen the oncoming shot. The miscommunication leads to a wide open chance in front and the Jackets capitalize.
This goes hand in hand with a goal scored by Montreal in a rout at the Garden.
Tomas Plekanec is able to get the puck down to the near corner after McDonagh, in that weird floater position, decides to chase after him and throw a weak stick check. That leaves Dan Girardi guarding Max Pacioretty in front with Alex Galchenyuk holding the puck. Gi has two choices. He can either stick with Pacioretty, try and body him up or lift his stick to prevent a cross-ice pass to a high-danger chance in front, or leave his man, charge towards Galchenyuk and see what happens.
Guess which one he picked. No, really.
The blue arrow notes the direction of the puck. The orange arrow notes the direction of Girardi. Oops.
Girardi happens to be one of the more polarizing players on the entire Rangers roster. He has his ardent supporters who will point to the team’s success and his career longevity as a tough shot-blocker. He has his detractors that have dozens of statistics on standby that say he is vastly overrated. Both camps can agree that he has had an underwhelming season to say the least this year.
His crowning achievement came on the penalty kill against, who else, the Capitals.
Bloopers happen. But that’s amazing. It’s not quite “Justin Williams Game 1 gaffe” hilarious, but it’s pretty funny.
Granted, the Capitals have been the league’s best powerplay for four years running now. Of course a lowlight reel is going to look pretty bad. But that is exactly the point- the Rangers pay top dollar for defensive defensemen for the express purpose of shutting guys like Ovechkin and Backstrom down. The benefit of the doubt cannot be given to defensemen because of who they play against when it is their job to play well against that very competition. You pay $6 million dollars for a defenseman to prevent the best in the league from scoring.
The Rangers can tout their recent playoff success all they want, but the window is closing and fast and Washington is only getting better. Past seasons are all well and good but this season has been a debacle, and this season is the only one that matters. Period. Especially when the Rangers have not won it all. Second place means not good enough.
And a lowlight reel of an okay or even a pretty good team, unit or player is one thing. This is barely scratching the surface on one of the worst units in franchise history, let alone the league. The Rangers have not been this bad a man down since before the butterfly goaltending style was even a thing, or halfway decent leg pads.
What are the solutions? There are not many. Going back to the drawing board and starting from scratch is one way. Getting new personnel to replace the aging, unproductive Staal and Girardi and their abhorrent contracts is worth exploring, but their terms and their full no-move clauses pretty much shoot that down on sight. Play Keith Yandle more on the penalty kill? He’s not as physical as the other blueliners on the team but physicality does not much come into play with this regime, and beggars cannot be choosers.
Whatever the answer is, it better come quick. Because it’s getting late early.
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