Gerard Gallant has tough lineup decisions to make down stretch
Igor Shesterkin #31 of the New York Rangers makes a save during the second period against Zach Parise #11 of the New York Islanders at Madison Square Garden on Friday, April 1, 2022 in New York City. Credit: Jim McIsaac
They sure didn’t look it on Friday, in that listless performance against the Islanders, but relax, Ranger fans, your team is good.
Those weren’t the real Rangers that lost to their biggest rival, 3-0, at the Garden. Those weren’t the guys who had won four straight and 8 of 10 going in. You’re going to have a stinker once in a while, and that was definitely one. Coach Gerard Gallant called it a “horse [expletive]’’ performance, and said the only good news was that everyone was bad at the same time.
“At least we do it together as a team,’’ he said after the game. “Like the great games we played in Pittsburgh, we did it as a team. [Friday night] we got the other side of it.’’
And that is why it’s relatively easy to write that one off. Despite the loss – and the 7-4 loss to the Devils the day after the trade deadline – the Rangers are a good team. They have the likely Vezina Trophy winner in goalie Igor Shesterkin, an improved defense in front of him, and a top six forward group that includes the third-leading goal-scorer in the NHL. They also have a potent power play that has the second-highest scoring rate in the league and an experienced coach in Gallant.
And the additions GM Chris Drury made have improved the team greatly. Frank Vatrano, a fourth-liner in Florida, seems to be fitting in beautifully on the top line, with Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad, and Andrew Copp has two goals and seven points in six games since coming over from Winnipeg. Tyler Motte has added speed to the fourth line and depth to the penalty-killing unit.
Most importantly, the Rangers have displayed resilience all season long. They aren’t 44-20-5 by accident. They have consistently found ways to win, whether it was relying on Shesterkin to bail them out earlier in the season, or getting clutch power play goals late in games to tie or win. They’re 8-5 in games decided after regulation, including 4-2 in shootouts. They’ve met every challenge presented to them all season, won every game where it seemed like their backs were against the wall with something to prove.
They’ll move past Friday’s loss. That was Gallant’s message after practice on Saturday – he was focused on turning the page and looking ahead to the Flyers game on Sunday. If they take care of business against the Flyers, a team that traded away its captain, Claude Giroux, at the deadline, and shipped out defenseman Justin Braun (to the Rangers) and ex-Ranger Derick Brassard (to Edmonton), the loss to the Islanders will be nothing more than a blip on an 82-game march to their first playoff spot in five years.
Once they get to the playoffs, matchups will be key, of course. Right now, it seems almost a lock that they’ll be playing against Pittsburgh in the first round. The NHL playoff format has the second and third teams in each division facing each other in the first round, with the second-place team holding home ice advantage. Right now, the battle is on between the Rangers and Pens for second, and that is shaping up to be a fun race. The teams play each other for the final time this season on Thursday at the Garden.
And there are more reinforcements coming. According to Gallant, injured forwards Kaapo Kakko and Kevin Rooney could be back at practice as soon as this week, which would give the coach little less than a month to figure out where they both fit going into the playoffs.
That will be an interesting puzzle for Gallant to figure out. Kakko had been playing on the top line when he was injured in late January, but Vatrano seems to be a nice fit there now. Before he went to the top line, Kakko had been looking good on the second line with Artemi Panarin and Ryan Strome. But Copp seems to be doing fine there. So does Kakko slot in on the third line with Alexis Lafreniere and Filip Chytil, re-creating the Kid Line? And what about Rooney? Copp and Motte are picking up some of the penalty-killing duties he used to handle, and the fourth line looks pretty crowded. Does he even get back into the lineup?
These are good problems for Gallant to have as he tries to navigate the final 13 games of the regular season. He’s going to have to leave a few good players out of the lineup every night. Those are the kind of problems good teams have.
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
