New York Rangers

Game 78: NYR-PIT, McDonagh sitting, Rangers struggling, Pittsburgh in town
March 31, 2017, 11:57 AM ET [89 Comments]
Jan Levine
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The Rangers return to action after two days off, facing the Penguins at home Friday. Both teams are limping to the finish. New York is 5-7-2 in their last 14 while the Penguins are 4-3-3 in their past 10 contests. Pittsburgh has a six-point lead on the Rangers with a game in hand. The 1-2-3 seeds in the Metro are not yet final, but what we see now is likely what will be. Washington has 110 points with six games left, Columbus is at 106 with Pittsburgh at 103 with both teams also having six games left.

Tonight's lineup will have additional shuffling, which has been the norm lately. Tanner Glass, Brandon Pirri and Jimmy Vesey all will be healthy scratches. Vesey had a rough game the other night and has been very inconsistent after a strong start to the season. AV has said that Vesey will be part of the playoff roster, but what has he done to earn a spot? Vesey is less miscast than Pavel Buchnevich on the fourth line, which is why Glass, as distasteful as that is to many, could see playoff action on the final trio with Oscar Lindberg and Jesper Fast.

J.T. Miller reacted well to the "demotion," scoring twice Tuesday. He moved up to the third line, which is where he belongs, during the game. Michael Grabner can't hit ocean when falling out of a boat, which isn't surprising, since his shooting percentage was unsustainable. The breakaways and speed to create chances and havoc on the PK still have value, but he is not a sniper. For all those saying NY should have sold high, well duh, no question, but you don't think the other 29 teams knew what Grabner was doing was unsustainable and weren't going to overpay for him?

Leave the top line alone, same with the second pairing, unless you miss Miller or Vesey there. Hayes is the third line center, Lindberg the fourth. Leave Fast in the lineup but on the fourth line. Then figure out who else fits in around them. Does Grabner stay on the third line or drop to the fourth given his struggles? If moving Miller up, then go Vesey-Hayes-Buchnevich on the third line and create a Grabner-Lindberg-Fast fourth line to balance out the roster.

Kreider-Stepan-Zuccarello,
Buchnevich-Zibanejad-Nash,
Grabner-Hayes-Fast,
Puempel-Lindberg-Miller

Defensively, it's been a tire fire. The same issues as to defensive zone coverage that have been the case for several years have propped up again. More precisely, they never went away but have become much worse and evident once again. It's amazing how this hasn't gotten fixed, especially after how this problem looked to have been resolved to start the season. This and the penalty killing woes are to me the two main issues down the stretch and heading into the post-season, along with getting Henrik Lundqvist back on the beam.

Ryan McDonagh is out tonight and I have no problem with it. The absence is being classified as a day-to-day injury after he missed yesterday's practice with a maintenance day. With nothing to play for down the stretch along with McDonagh struggling recently, resting him is the wisest course of action. Let him rest periodically during the stretch so that he is fully ready to go once the post-season starts.

With McDonagh out, the pairing tonight are, please make sure you are seated reading this, Staal-Klein; Holden-Girardi and Skjei-Smith. That first pairing and second pairing may be tire fires tonight, leaving Lundqvist out to dry. I would have gone with the third pairing as the first or Skjei-Clendening as a pairing to see what they could do against Pittsburgh. Holden has struggled mightily, so I have major questions as to if he should be in the lineup come post-season, the same with Klein, who is returning from his back injury.

Unfortunately, other than Skjei and maybe McDonagh, who else has played well on the blue line? Clendening has moved the puck but had defensive lapses and I know the view of many about him. Smith hasn't set the world on fire since coming over, but maybe the team's third best d-man. We will see a lot about this group tonight, since it could get very ugly at MSG.

If the next five games go as the past five have gone, heading into the playoffs on that kind of slide would be reminiscent of some times past and we know how that has worked out. Some of the struggles might be explained away by injuries and knowing they basically were locked into a Wild Card spot, but that only covers some of it. The defensive zone issues and neutral zone turnovers coupled with poor power play aren't tossed aside with those aforementioned excuses. If those aren't fixed, it won't matter who the playoff match up is, as the post-season will end quickly and with a whimper like last season.

Home stretch is here. Fixing the issues noted is the key. It starts tonight at MSG.