It is beyond frustrating trying to figure out who the real New York Rangers are. Are they the 2-8-1 home team, scoring just 3 goals in those regulation losses? Or are they the 11-4-1 road team who has laid waste to teams on the road? It is December 1st tomorrow, and no matter how good the process and metrics look, the Rangers are not a serious team with just two home wins through two months of the season. This goes beyond any sort of sports psychology to this point, maybe the roster really isn’t as good as we think it is, and the proper course of action is to start tearing it down.
Igor Shesterkin did all he cojld over the course of the game as Mike Sullivan decided to ride the hot hand on the second half of the back-to-back. The Rangers rewarded Shesterkin by barely showing up and allowing 35 shots on goal, three that beat Shesterkin.
We can make up all sorts of excuses: It was the Rangers 10th game in 16 days, they were on a back to back with travel, pieces of the lineup are clearly not at 100%, but none of that matters. The Tampa Bay Lightning were also missing top of the lineup players and they didn’t use it as an excuse. They manhandled the Rangers, or whatever team it was that showed up at MSG that could only muster 11 shots on goal.
At what point is Chris Drury’s job in question? He changed the coach 3 times, he assembled the team he wanted, and they look like they can’t compete in the AHL, much less the NHL. With so many contracts locked up until the early 2030’s, it’s going to be interesting to see how he finishes up this retool, if he’s even able to. The current iteration just can’t be taken seriously as a playoff contender. This is not a team that should even be on the bubble, let alone in a serious conversation about making a run.
So what’s it going to be for this team? Eight of their next 11 games will be at the Garden, and they can’t win at home. Will this team fold in those games? Maybe at that point we’d see some changes we’ve been desperate for. You can’t fault Mike Sullivan for this in my opinion yet, he has been here for 2 seconds. Some of the players have been here for 4, 5, 6 seasons. They should know what’s expected of them.