New York Rangers: What went wrong during 2017-18 season?

The New York Rangers will not be in the postseason for the first time since 2010. Let’s take a look at what went wrong for them.

The New York Rangers have quietly been one of the NHL’s most consistent teams over the past decade. However, a New Jersey Devils win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday cemented their fate this season as a pretender. This will be just the second season since the 2004-05 lockout they will not be in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

A lot of things went wrong for the Rangers since June of 2017. They were expected to be contenders after signing Kevin Shattenkirk in July. However, the Rangers never got the consistency they needed to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs. This could be a long offseason on Broadway. Let’s look at what went wrong for them.

1. Delayed Rebuild

It’s a very good thing the Rangers are rebuilding. Frankly, it was long overdue. The Rangers had a questionable at best present and future. So they decided to at least make their future a little bit better. The rebuild started right around the trade deadline when they shipped out Nick Holden, Rick Nash, Michael Grabner, J.T. Miller, and captain Ryan McDonagh.

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But here’s the problem – it should have started back in June. Specifically, the Derek Stepan trade should have been the beginning. Instead of getting better future pieces, the Rangers settled for Anthony DeAngelo. Who, to be fair, could be a nice contributor on Broadway next season.

With the first round pick they got, they drafted Liam Andersson. Now, he’s a darn good center and I think he has a future in the NHL. But it seems the Rangers went with a “safe” pick rather than a “home run” pick. That’s not something a rebuilding team does.

The Rangers front office deserves to face scrutiny for not rebuilding sooner. Because as great as their future looks now, imagine how good it could look if they would have focused on rebuilding earlier.

2. Lame Duck Coach

Nothing in the NHL is worse than a lame duck coach. Even though Alain Vigneault has a contract past this season, he still entered the season on the hot seat. An early slump put him on the ropes. Reportedly, it got to the point where the Rangers were going to fire him with one more loss.

With how this season has gone on Broadway, the future of Vigneault is uncertain. General Manager Jeff Gorton refused to give him a vote of confidence in January. Vigneault has had a lot of success with the Rangers. But the team has taken a step back with him in each of the past four years.

Vigneault’s list of transgressions is long. His greatest one is how he deals with young, skilled forwards. Pavel Buchnevich is a terrific example. He is far from a flawed player. But Buchenvich is one of the very few Rangers forwards who can create chances consistently. He’s been up and down the lineup this season. Despite that, Buchnevich has 42 points as of March 28, ranking third on the team.

At five-on-five, the talented Russian forward ranks seventh in total time on ice among Rangers forwards. Even Miller, who was traded a month ago, has gotten more playing time than him. A rebuilding team should be giving Buchnevich a ton of playing time. But this hasn’t been the case.

Buchnevich ranks 10th overall among Rangers forwards (minimum 400 minutes) in five-on-five ice time on ice per game (11:40). Even Jimmy Vesey, who’s a fine player but not nearly as good, gets more ice time per game than him. Buchnevich’s ice time is disproportional to his production. At five-on-five, he ranks eighth among Rangers forwards in goals per hour, fourth in assists per hour, first in primary assists per hour, and third in total points per hour.

3. The Defense Is Still Broken

Last offseason, there was a lot of change on Broadway. The Rangers rebuilt their blue line by getting rid of Dan Girardi, signing Shattenkirk, and re-signing trade deadline acquisition Brendan Smith. This was supposed to help fix their blueline. But it didn’t.

To be fair, maybe it isn’t their defensive players that’s broken. It’s probably the system. When’s the last time the Rangers had a good defense? When’s the last time Henrik Lundqvist didn’t have to make up for a lackluster defensive effort? At some point, you have to question the system.

Why didn’t Shattenkirk and Smith help the blueline? Well, the former was injured for a while and tried to play with it. Shattenkirk wasn’t himself. He’s usually a dynamic defenseman. But Shattenkirk was a step slow all season and just never looked right. Even while injured, he still put up 23 points in 46 games. So Shattenkirk’s not the problem (though it’s fair to question why the heck he was playing injured).

Smith is far more complicated. Even at his worst before this season, he’s been a slightly above average defenseman. Smith was arguably the Rangers’ most consistent blueliner after they acquired him in February of 2017. You don’t go from that to horrible without something being up. The Rangers might be tempted to buy out Smith (it wouldn’t be a terrible idea), but considering how young the rest of their blueline is, they should probably keep him and see if he can rebound.

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The good news for Rangers fans is most of what went wrong is fixable. Fire Vigneault and the first two issues likely go away while the third is at least addressed. It wouldn’t be surprising to see the Rangers be competitive as soon as next season, but they’ve gone down the road of the rebuild. They’ve got to see it out and not try to rush things.

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