Ten Game Temp Check: Midway Through The Season, Rangers Remain Mid
Approaching the midway point of the season, the Rangers are still a middle of the pack team at best and can’t maintain any form of consistency as injuries continue to hold them back.
With the New York Rangers one game away from the official midway mark of the season, their latest stretch of 10 games with a result of 4-5-1 was precisely what the season has been as a whole—not good enough.
As we get into part four of this season’s Ten Game Temp Check series, the Rangers are currently sixth in the Metropolitan Division, 11th in the Eastern Conference and 17th in the overall league standings. As always, let's take a look at the side-by-side for the expectations set in part three versus the actual results.
V. Vegas—W 3-2 OT Loss V. Vegas
@ Chicago—W 3-0 Loss @ Chicago
V. Montreal—W 5-4 OT Win V. Montreal
V. Anaheim—L 4-1 Loss V. Anaheim
V. Vancouver—W 3-0 Loss V. Vancouver
@ St. Louis—W 2-1 OT Win @ St. Louis
V. Philadelphia—W 5-4 SO Win V. Philadelphia
@ Nashville—L 2-1 Loss @ Nashville
@ Washington—W 7-3 Win @ Washington
@ NY Islanders—L 2-0 Loss @ NY Islanders
My main point heading into this part of the season was that the Rangers had a golden opportunity to build some momentum with a win streak against weaker opponents. Instead, they continue to flirt with a .500 record (19-17-4) and despite being just seven points out of the top of the Metropolitan Division, they’re only six points away from the basement in the Eastern Conference. That’s been the story of the season for the Rangers and until they can prove they’re a team capable of anything more, this is the team you can expect them to be.
What Went Well
I’m genuinely struggling to think of something nice to say here. They picked up some fun wins against the Montreal Canadiens, Philadelphia Flyers, and Washington Capitals. But if you take those out of the equation, it was truly a dreadful portion of the season.
The only other win came in overtime against a St. Louis Blues team who was rocked by injuries, and should have been an easy win for the type of team we’d all like the Rangers to be. Outside of a wins and losses standpoint, they got Matt Rempe back, and that’s cool. The kids—Gabe Perreault and Brennan Othmann—also got the call up we’ve been longing for, and young defensemen like Matthew Robertson and Scott Morrow are continuing to impress, growing pains aside. Other than that, there’s not a ton to write home about.
To an extent, the team continued to persevere and battle their way back in games where they were trailing. That's a large part of what made games like the Philadelphia and Washington wins so exciting. Problem is, that's only happening a quarter of the time. In another quarter of the games you're losing, and in another quarter of them you're getting shutout completely. You don't know which Rangers team is going to show up on any given night and, as a result, you can't expect much from them.
