Here is how to spin a 1-5-0 start into a positive, something the Rangers are doing en masse while in this very early-season moment of crisis.
“I believe this is when you build character,” Rick Nash reiterated again after Monday’s practice, with a home stretch against the Penguins, Islanders and Predators coming up over the next few days, starting with Pittsburgh on Tuesday night.
“It’s not an easy time right now. But we have to get through this, and usually when you get through things like this, you come out stronger.”
The Blueshirts are lamenting this disappointing getaway, the worst in the five-year tenure of coach Alain Vigneault and worst for the franchise since 1980-81. But there is a long list of things that have gone wrong, a stretch defined by inconsistencies at both ends of the rink and games with shockingly bad lulls. If they don’t start winning soon, it’s going to be an insurmountable hole rather than a learning experience.
“It’s going to help with our identity, it’s going to help with our character, and it’s definitely going to permit our leadership group to establish themselves,” Vigneault said. “Right now, everyone in that room knows they’re part of the solution and we’re working extremely hard here to put it together.”
Of course, it starts with Vigneault and his staff, who are grasping at straws when it comes to configuring a lineup with this revamped roster. The forward lines are in constant flux, and twice already Vigneault has dressed seven defensemen and 11 forwards. It is something he did very rarely during his first four years, but decided to do for Saturday’s 3-2 loss to the Devils.
It is at the point where David Desharnais was elevated to a spot between Chris Kreider and J.T. Miller for Monday’s practice, and that was while Kevin Hayes was with Jimmy Vesey and Jesper Fast in what would be a decidedly more defensive role.
But this is a team that has scored just two 5-on-5 goals in five games, excluding the wild 8-5 loss in Toronto on Oct. 7. Back then, it seemed like defense was the problem. Now, it’s the offense. And that’s how it goes when a team has lost five of six.
“I’m going to get the continuity once I get the results,” Vigneault said about his constant juggling. “I think everybody has a different approach. I think I’ve been very patient with trying certain guys with certain people. At some point, two 5-on-5 goals in five games is not doing it. So then it becomes my obligation to look for answers, and that’s what I’m doing right now.”
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It also hasn’t just been the forwards, as Vigneault has paired captain Ryan McDonagh with four different partners at this early juncture of the season. New addition Kevin Shattenkirk obviously hasn’t found his game just yet, but McDonagh has also been paired with Marc Staal, as well as Nick Holden and now Tony DeAngelo, who both had been healthy scratches before being bounced onto the top pair.
“I see this as we’re being challenged,” Vigneault said. “We’re facing some adversity as a group. The solution lies in that room right now. As a player, you have to control what you can control — your hard work, your preparation, making sure every day you’re analyzing your game properly so that you can focus on the areas you need to improve. That’s where coaches come in, giving them the right feedback.”
It is salt in the wound to think that the schedule also has the Rangers at the Garden for 11 of their first 13 games, and 15 of their first 20. They’ve given themselves quite the deficit to come back from, but they’re looking at it through the prism of good teams being bred through adversity.
It is salt in the wound to think that the schedule also has the Rangers at the Garden for 10 of their first 13 games, and 15 of their first 20. They’ve given themselves quite the deficit to come back from, but the way they’re looking at it is through the concept good teams are bred through adversity.
“You come in with high hopes, and especially for us with our homestand here, we wanted to get off to a good start,” Nash said. “We put ourselves in a bit of a hole here, so it’s definitely a shock. But at the same time, it’s reality, and we have to deal with it and try to get out of it.”