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The Rangers have taken significant strides in their overall defensive game, but adverse trends on the other side of the puck have lingered.
Despite carrying a respectable 2.80 goals per game average into Monday’s game against the Ducks, the Blueshirts have suffered stretches — including games at a time — of complete disconnect on offense. It’s a pattern that plagued last season’s team greatly.
Limited to one goal in their previous two losses, the Rangers had only scored twice through their four losses, half of which were shutout defeats.
“Obviously, our last two games, I don’t think we’ve been at our best,” head coach Mike Sullivan said after morning skate on Monday. “I thought we fought hard, we played hard in Columbus. I don’t think we were at our best in Columbus, but I thought we competed hard. And give Columbus credit, they played a pretty stingy game. They’re not easy to play against. The Jersey game, for me, that’s a hard one to rationalize. The last couple games, when you combine them as six periods, it’s not a great picture. I’d like to think we’re better than that, and we have been better than that for a lot of the year. It reflects in the record that the group has.
“Are we satisfied with what we’re generating offensively? No. Do we think there’s another level to it? Yes, we do.”
The Rangers were shut out a league-high 10 times last season and set a franchise record with seven shutout losses at Madison Square Garden, a reflection of multiple individual players underachieving and the team’s inability to operate as a five-man unit most games.
Whether it’s a teamwide trudge to generate offense or an individual inability to finish, the Rangers have consistently struggled to give their goaltenders goal support in recent years.
The 1-0 overtime loss in Columbus serves as one of the more recent examples, with rookie goalie Dylan Garand helping to provide just under 63 ½ minutes of scoreless hockey before Kent Johnson snagged the extra point for his team in the extra period.
So far this season, however, it’s mostly been a case of the latter.
Aside from the season opener and the last couple contests, the Rangers have threatened offensively rather consistently. The team has hit a considerable amount of posts and crossbars already, while also displaying an ability to sustain offensive zone time.
With key skaters like captain J.T. Miller (1) and Pavel Dorofeyev (2) combining for three goals, the Rangers are certainly looking for more from members of their top six.
“I think the biggest thing in-zone — and this is a discussion we’ve had with our group — is our willingness to create off the shot more,” Sullivan said. “We’re passing up opportunities to shoot more pucks. In other words, we’re not getting rewarded for the offensive zone time that we’re establishing. We’re not getting rewarded as much as we think we can be. I think that’s the next level to our offensive zone play, is creating off the shot more. It’s a hard play to defend. We call it a broken play, right? It’s a sifter from either the top or the perimeter on the flanks. You get two on the inside in some capacity, that shot comes in, it hits something or someone, or the rebound goes somewhere. That next play is very difficult to defend.
“Well, the only way to create that play is you’ve got to be willing to shoot the puck a little bit and create off the shot. You’re not necessarily shooting to score. You’re shooting to create the next play, and I think that’s the next level for our offense in zone that I think, as I’ve said, when you look at it game in and game out, we’ve had a fair amount of zone time. I think there’s more on the table there that there’s another level that we can get rewarded for our efforts.
“When the plays are there, we got to make them. We got to continue to encourage a four-man attack and get the D up in the rush. And then the power play. I think the power play the last couple games hasn’t been quite as good. Prior to that, we’ve said it all year long, they’ve been a work in progress, but they’ve been scoring goals. We’re obviously trying to improve in all those areas.”