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What the Rangers need to Work on
by Patrick Hoffman on 10/28/08 at 10:50 PM ET
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In his Rangers Report Blog this afternoon, Sam Weinman gave a few reasons why the Rangers are 9-2-1.
He cited the play of netminders Henrik Lundqvist and Stephen Valiquette, reporting to training camp early and in shape, a favorable schedule and unexpected contributions from guys like Aaron Voros and Fredrik Sjostrom.
These are all obvious reasons but just because they’re 9-2-1 doesn’t mean that everything is perfect.
For example, the play of Wade Redden has been below average. He hasn’t had the big impact on the power play like the coaching staff and the team’s fan thought he would and he’s been rather easy to get around. However, because of the play of the rest of the defense and Henrik’s goaltending, Redden’s shortcomings have been masked.
The team’s power play also needs to be a lot better. The team is just 9 for 62 with the man advantage, which puts them 24th in the league with a 14.5 percent conversion rate. When you have players such as Scott Gomez, Chris Drury, Markus Naslund, Nikolai Zherdev and Wade Redden, more pucks should be going in the net.
The offense in general has also been quiet. The team is 21st in the league with 31 goals in 12 games, which means they score an average of 2.58 goals per game. This is well below the average as close to half the league is averaging three goals or better. The question is will the Rangers’ attention to defense (first in the league in goals-against average) cause the team’s offense to be more quiet? Let’s hope not because more often than not, they’ll be at the other end of a one-goal game.
This is not all doom and gloom folks. Overall, the team is showing that they have depth, that they know how to play team defense, that they have tremendous goaltending and that overall, their winning hockey games. With that being said though, let’s remember that there are 70 games remaining and A LOT can happen.
For now, just enjoy the ride that the team is on and hope that the points they are accumulating now mean something come April.
Filed in: | Goal Line Report | Permalink
Tags: Aaron+Voros, Chris+Drury, Fredrik+Sjostrom, Henrik+Lundqvist, Markus+Naslund, Nikolai+Zherdev, Scott+Gomez, Stephen+Valiquette, Wade+Redden,
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About Goal Line Report
The Goal Line Report will focus on all things Eastern Conference. Do I have a bias towards the Eastern Conference just because I am a New Yorker? No, but it certainly does make things easier! I’ll make my opinions known on Eastern Conference news bits (as often as I can), big games, hot and cold players, trades (I don’t make things up) and anything and everything else related to the Eastern Conference that I think is important for hockey fans to know. I will, in every sense of the word, be the beast of the East while also making sure to drop my thoughts on other hockey news items.
I, Patrick Hoffman, have covered the NHL since 2003 and have worked for a variety of hockey media sources including: Stan Fischler, Spector’s Hockey, TheHockeyNews.com, HockeyBuzz.com, McKeen’s Hockey, Blueshirt Bulletin, XM Home Ice Channel Hockey Blog, HockeyPrimeTime.com, FantasyHockey.com. NY SportsDay, and HokejaVestnesis.com.
For questions, comments or to talk hockey, feel free to send me an e-mail at .
I think we saw the answer to that last season.
Posted by K24 from NYC on 10/29/08 at 08:30 PM ET