Viewing the New York Rangers through an Islander lens

The New York Rangers are looking to become a premier team in the NHL. After a quick rebuild, they have the pieces to dominate, just not right now.

In the world in which we live, there is always a battle between good and evil. At times, good wins out, but at others, evil dominates. Growing up deep in Long Island Islanders country, evil prevailed, showing its face in the form of the New York Rangers.

From an early age, the team was easy to hate. People hate the New York Yankees and the New England Patriots for no other reason than their long track record of success.

While the Rangers have yet to make it over the hump and pick up a Stanley Cup since 1994, when you think of New York hockey, the team donning the red, white, and blue has consistently remained the first team that comes to mind.

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Today, that statement still rings true regardless of their success on the ice.

Now granted, the gears have shifted over the last few seasons, with the Islanders beating out the Rangers both head-to-head and in the Metropolitan Division standings, a division that seems to get more rigid and challenging with each passing year.

Putting bias aside, the Islanders are the better hockey club right now. They have a world-class management team headlined by future Hall of Famers in Lou Lamoriello and Barry Trotz. The defense is there. The mix of young talent and veteran leadership is there. They’ve even shifted entirely into win-now mode, magnified by the team falling two wins shy from their first trip to the Stanley Cup Finals since 1984. This offseason for the Islanders has played out just like the regular season did, with not too much to get excited about.

On the other side of the Battle of New York, things have definitely been more exciting. The stars aligned for the Rangers in 2020 when they won the draft lottery and selected Alexis Lafreniere first overall.  Measuring in at 6-foot-1, 198 pounds, Lafreniere is a player that is not just mentally mature, but more importantly, physically mature enough to do damage this upcoming season.

Gosh, some teams have all the luck.

Lafreniere joins a talented offense that scored 3.33 goals per game last year, which ranked fifth in the NHL in that category.

This season, the offense consisting of stars in Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad, welcome back a healthy and happy Chris Kreider.

With sophomore Kaapo Kakko having another year under his belt, along with Filip Chytl and Pavel Buchnevich, this offense will undoubtedly cause problems to opposing defenses this upcoming season and more than likely for years to come.

But the offense is not a concern. The main concern is on the defensive side of the puck.

The team as a whole allowed 3.14 goals per game last year, which ranked ninth in the NHL. Imagine if they had the Islanders’ defense, which allowed only 2.79 goals per game?

Fortunately for Islander fans, they do not or they would be juggernauts in this league.

The Rangers defense is not as bad as people are making it out to be. Yes, it is a weakness, but that does not mean that its struggles from last season will be carrying over.

It is just a really big question mark.

For starters, the Rangers ridding themselves of Marc Staal was a rather intelligent move. However, the happiness that the move brought to the fanbase was short-lived, as the team then brought in one of the worst defensive players in hockey to take his place, Jack Johnson.

Though Johnson’s one-year, $1.15 million contract is substantially less than Staal’s $5.7 million hit, the move was a real head-scratcher and left many Rangers fans questioning the competence of upper management. With that being said, take the signing with a grain of salt, as he’ll surely only be used as a stopgap until a player like K’Andre Miller is ready to take the great leap.

This defensive group is so incredibly young that one year under their belt, including playoff games regardless of how many, could have been all that was needed for these players to get comfortable at the NHL level.

While second-year defenseman Adam Fox will not get the same notoriety as other young defensemen in Cale Makar or Quinn Hughes, his potential is just as high. At only 22-years-old, the New York native looks like a 15-year veteran out there, while fourth-year player Tony DeAngelo, who was embarrassed by Sebastian Aho this postseason, is a similarly electric player with a lethal shot. Ryan Lindgren is another guy that will only get better with time and experience. He’s already playing top-line minutes with Fox.

With veterans in Jacob Trouba and even Brendan Smith there for support, this defensive numbers should be extremely better.

One thing that is not a question mark heading into 2021 is the play of Igor Shesterkin, who showcased last season that he could be Lundqvist-Esque in goal each night, providing his team with jaw-dropping saves to help pick up crucial points. Points that will be even more crucial this year, with fewer games being played.

He will be the go-to guy this season from the get-go, with the broadway spotlight shining on him full time.

I believe the three-headed goaltending system of last season negatively affected the defensive units.

As a goaltender, you want to be able to get into a groove. Having to rotate in a threesome really does not allow for that to happen. Also, each goaltender has their own unique style, whether it be the way pucks bounce off their pads when they make saves or their level of respect when playing the puck. The best comparison I can think of is quarterbacks in football. This position’s success relies on the chemistry he has with the players in front of him.

While I understood the reason behind rolling with all three, it just was not going to lead to team success or chemistry building.

The Rangers had a rookie in Shesterkin who needed time to get acclimated and King Henrik, who given his history deserved playing time, despite age getting the best of him. The team also had Alexandar Georgiev, who needed to see ice time as there were many teams interested in the youngster, and his skillsets needed to be viewed by opposing scouts.

Once the team went with Shesterkin as the mainstay until his unfortunate car accident, the defense played a lot better structurally. Why? Because they were getting acclimated to his style, which allowed them to figure out what kind of game they needed to play to win.

The same can be said with what the Islanders will have to do with rookie Ilya Sorokin, a practical carbon-copy of Shesterkin.

Now with Lundqvist gone, and Georgiev the number two man, this defense should have a better go of things.

So what does this all mean? Are the Rangers a team that can be a true playoff team this season?

Right now, if everything goes as planned, I think they are a team that can sneak their way into the playoffs, especially if they are expanded, which is expected. We talked about the defense needing to be better, but I also believe that leadership will play a deciding role as well.

With no captain named as of yet, various players could hold that position. While that role has not been filled, the team lost two leaders in Marc Staal and Henrik Lundqvist this offseason and will need someone to step up and fill that void moving forward.

As much as Staal hurt the team, his impact on the locker room was obvious. He wore an “A”, so it goes without saying how his teammates viewed him.

And as for Lundqvist? Well, he was a leader whether he wore a letter or not. When times were tough, he was the guy that took the blame even when he had no business doing so. He was the definition of what it meant to be a New York Ranger.

With both players gone, the Rangers remaining vets will need to have more of a voice in the room and on the bench. The question is, how long will it take for that leadership to get this group going. Mistakes will happen with a young team, but it is what you do with those mistakes that truly matter.

Heading back over to the Islanders for a second, they are no longer a young team. However, there is one young player that’s situation should serve as a microcosm for what the Rangers will need to deal with this upcoming season.

20-year old rookie Noah Dobson saw limited playing time this past season. When the team’s best defenseman, Adam Pelech, went down with what was thought to be a season-ending injury, the team put their faith in the young defenseman. He made many mistakes, leading to the team going out and acquiring veteran Andy Greene. As the season went on, you could see Dobson start to find his game. Now with top-four defenseman Devon Toews in Colorado and Johnny Boychuk‘s career-ending injury, Dobson will play a significant role this upcoming season. While his play will not be the sole factor that gets this team to where it wants to go, he will need to learn quickly.

For the Rangers, many young players are looking to do the same, but their struggles this season COULD BE a sole factor in getting the team to where they want to go.

The future is so bright on Broadway. A rebuild came and went in the blink of an eye. This will be a team fighting for the Metropolitan Division’s top each and every year, a few years down the road.