At the beginning of the year, it was projected by ESPN's Barry Melrose and Sports Illustrated that the New York Rangers---behind the sparkling play of Czech superstar, Jaromir Jagr and the Vezina winning performance of a lifetime from "King" Henrik Lundqvist---would be the frontrunners in the East.
What was unexpected was the poor start to the season offensively and the lack of a defense midway through. In the first 26 games, the Rangers allowed a grand total of 51 goals and Lundqvist was on his way to claiming the top prize between the pipes. The Blushirts were also 15-9-1 during that stretch (in spite of being on of the worst goal-scoring teams in the league).
Unfortunately, for the Rangers faithful...the path to greatness was interrupted by a slew of Western Conference and intra-conference matchups leading to a 7-12-4 mark in the next 23 games...including a 0-7-2 record against the West.
Not only was the defense breaking down but Lundqvist looked vulnerable as well. Marc Staal appeared to hit a wall...Jason Strudwick wasn't himself... Marek Malik showed his non-fleet of foot...and even more importantly...the Rangers third line was despicable.
The third unit which was originally comprised of Marcel Hossa, Petr Prucha and Brandon Dubinsky was broken up in several ways: Hossa was traded to the Phonix Coyotes along with Blueshirt prospect Al Montoya for the services of defenseman Frederick Sjostrom and forward Christian Backman. In addition, Brandon Dubinsky was moved to the first line with Jagr and Sean Avery. Meanwhile, Prucha has been unable to crack the lineup on a regular basis sinc the Rangers hav been on th bright end of the spectrum recently.
In spite of how well the squad has played...there is still some hesitation as to whether this team can meet the expectations of what the analysts predicted during the pre-season. The trade deadline was perhaps the greatest indicator for teams like Washington and Pittsburgh. The Penguins have two excellent scoring lines now which fature Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Marian Hossa and Jared Staal...while the Caps add a marquis goaltender in Cristobal Huet.
Ultimately, I didn't think the Rangers had enough to make it out of the east before the season began and I still believe the Blueshirts lack the scoring intensity to get through in the conference. I still stand by my pre-season pick of th Penguins winning the cup with Ty Conklin as the key to success.
Monday, March 24, 2008
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