Rangers Strategy a Mystery
December 1, 2009 | Posted by Leslie Treff The Rangers returned Bobby Sanguinetti to Hartford this morning, which got me thinking once again, why aren’t the Rangers taking the right steps to make the team’s defense better. Very frankly, when Sanguinetti was called up, my eyebrows were raised. Its true that Sanguinetti has been having a tremendous year in Hartford, and that he was ready to get a shot in the NHL. You might even say, he deserved it. And when I questioned Gordie Clark about it this weekend, that’s exactly what he said–Sanguinetti deserved the call-up.
I was a little more polite when I spoke to Clark, but my response was and is–so what? Yes, Sanguinetti is tearing up the AHL, but just because someone deserves a promotion does not mean that he gets it; particularly if your team has other needs. And this hockey team really needed someone who was solid in his own zone.
It’s one thing if the Rangers were just showcasing Sanguinetti with the aim of trading him. But I have no evidence that this was the case. So lets assume that the Rangers were just calling up a blueliner to replace the injured Wade Redden for a couple of games. If you are picking a replacement for an injured worker, you pick the guy that can most closely replace the guy that is out. You don’t replace him with a worker with skills you already have enough of. And Sanguinetti is too much like two other rookies–Michael Del Zotto and Matt Gilroy–to have been an asset to New York against Tampa Bay or Pittsburgh this weekend.
Sanguinetti does have a good shot and his offensive instincts are good, but defense was never his strong point. While he has made great strides in this area of his game, it looks to always be a weakness. That’s often okay for offensive blueliners, but that’s not what this team needed right now. Personally, I thought that Ilkka Heikkinen should get the call, which actually would have taken some guts to make (given Sanguinetti’s performance in the AHL this season), but he is more solid on defense than is Sanguinetti, has played professionally in Europe, and is NHL-ready. Sure, Heikkinen wasn’t ready a couple of months ago in camp or early season, but he is now, and would have done the team more good.
The Rangers are desperate for a stable defense–guys who can play solid D in their own zone. Staal used to be one of those guys. So was Girardi. Right now, the only blueliner on the Rangers that has a positive plus/minus is Gilroy. Surprisingly good in his own zone most of the time, Gilroy has not yet been the offensive threat that was expected. But he is the one guy who is fast enough to make up for his mistakes and get back in time to help out his netminder when coverage is blown. Most of the time.
What it has taken me awhile to get to is that I just don’t understand what the defensive plan is. Obviously, if it was once a “No D” plan, it should have been changed by now because it is not working. In fact, it could never work with this personnel, because there just isn’t enough offensive power to win games 6-5 or 5-4. This should be a shock to no-one–the team does not have enough players to populate a second line with any consistency. (Ryan Callahan and Brandon Dubinsky are basically third line players, who are not going to give this team 50-60 points per year each). The early excellent start was very deceptive, and perhaps hid the glaring difficiencies in the roster.
Now its past time for change. But the team should start with letting Staal and Girardi go back to what they were last year. They were kind of boring, but very reliable. And then when he is healthy, add Mathieu Dandenault as the seventh defenseman. He was able to stabilize the blueline in Hartford, and he may be able to do it in New York too. It’s worth a shot to try those things. Because as it stands now, the Rangers are just not good enough to win more than about 50-55% of their games, which will put them out of the playoffs for the first time since the lockout.
Don’t laugh; it’s a very real possibility, and I am stumped as to how this has been allowed to happen. Hopefully, everyone will wake up from the unrealistic start this team had and see the real problems that need to be addressed. The sooner they do, the better.
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10 Comments »
What about Potter – always does a solid job when called up but has never really been given a chance to play full time at the NHL level.
Potter has played very inconsistently in Hartford this season and looked absolutely terrible in training camp. I would have called up Mike Sauer first, but he had been out injured for several games prior the middle of last week. Both have more of the skills that were needed than Sanguinetti, but Potter just has not performed well enough yet this season.
That stinks. I (obv by the above) have been a big supporter of Potter and I wonder if his up/down season last year between Hartford and NYR has played a role in his season this year. Well that is on him then. I hope he can turn it around. Sauer is always a possibility as a good stay at home force – IF he can be healthy but as we all know – that doesnt happen too often.
I raised the same eyebrow you did – ya know – but my own – with the same questions as to why Sangs. Great article as always. Enjoy it all.
I know we are talking about Defense, but we need some forwards other than Gabby to put the puck in the net. Is the “Great Grachev” ready?
Unfortunately Paul, I don’t see Grachev being ready for quite awhile. He is nowhere near as dominating as I hoped that he would be this season.
15 points in 24 games for Grachev is pretty respectable though given the circumstance. Remember that Anisimov didn’t dominate right away when he first made the jump to the AHL. I see them both having similar upsides and it’s too early to wonder about why Evgeny isn’t dominating yet.
That being said, what do you think the Rangers will do to re-vamp this terrible defense? I agree that Staal and Girardi need to go back to being the defensive stalwarts on the team along with Redden. You don’t need all 6 dmen trying to be the next coming of Brian Leetch
It’s not the points that Grachev has that I am concerned with. It’s the way Grachev looks on the ice–not really engaged at times; not giving his all on every shift.
What are the chances the Rangers do something with Rozsival? He is atrocious. $5 million per year or not, he is contributing to this team’s demise on a nightly, shift-ly basis. What are the chances Glenn and co swallow their pride and send him down? It is clear Glenn needed to adjust to the cap, and maybe he has. The Gomez trade was his admission. Maybe someone will be foolish enough to pick him up at half price.
Sorry, but I think the chances are next to zero on sending him down. If the Rangers intended on sending Rozsival down, they would not have just waived Valiquette. They just would have sent Vali down on a conditioning stint, and kept the money on the books.
IMO, Sangz didn’t look bad against the Pens and Lightning. He attacked at the blueline when the Pens’ forwards pushed the puck, showed some good speed when joining the rush and didn’t give away the puck in the Ranger zone. IMO, the defense he showed in preseason carried over into those two games. I don’t mind Staal, Gilroy and MDZ creating, but it’s their inconsistancy at creating or attempting to score is what’s killing me. When Staal is creating, moving the puck in the oppositions zone, it’s hard to move him off the puck as seen the two games he scored. The same goes for Gilroy. He needs to use that speed and make something happen. MDZ is the one who needs to look for his shot. It’s ok to create for others, but when you’re not taking those open shots you’re just hurting the team. I feel all three have what it takes to make the offense be even more potent. They have the skill to make it happen. Will this effect the Rangers on the defense end? Of course. Staal said he’s hungry to take the next and become a two-way player, Gilroy has good speed to recover, DMZ has been doing well getting on D–If you want to win and be good defensively, making the effort to get back shouldn’t be a problem. I feel when the Rangers add better solid, crafty forwards it will help the Rangers’ defenseman be better. And one more thing the Rangers’ D-men need to get down. If the opposition is ten feet from scoring and you put your feet together, the D-men aren’t helping matters..they’re just blocking the goalie or giving the shooter a better look. If the shooter is ten feet he’s not going to attempt a slapshot, so get down on the ice and block the shots..that goes to all the Rangers. That’s why the Rangers were successful on the PK last year because everyone got down on the ice. Not taking one knee, not putting their feet together to deflect the shot. If the shooter is ten feet away, they need to get down in a way that you protect themselves from the shot and angle their bodies so they could disrupt a two on one break away. They were good at that last year and I’ve seen DMZ do it once or twice this year.