The New York Rangers were one of the worst teams in the NHL last season. Their offense completely dried up, their D corps was embarrassing, and they had little to no help on the way in terms of younger players. Their performance last year prompted yet another letter to the fans warning that a retool was forthcoming. The retool might have been stalled by all of the moves they made this offseason, which was puzzling. They completely revamped their back end and brought in Pavel Dorofeyev to help the offense. So far, so good, as the Rangers are 3-1-0 to start the season.
I am not buying this team despite their good start. They are still offensively inept. Zibanejad and Miller don’t instill the type of confidence down the middle that they used to provide. Alexis Lafreniere is a gigantic bust. Their bottom six is not playoff caliber either. I actually like their reimagined back end quite a bit, but I fear they will just be too bland offensively to keep up in the East. Hell, one of their top offensive performers so far this year is goaltender Igor Shesterkin (1G-1A).
Speaking of Shesterkin, he is their only hope. If he puts together a Vezina-caliber campaign behind his new back end, then the Rangers have a chance to win every single night. Yet, when the playoffs roll around (if they get there), they will need someone other than their goaltender to score goals, and I just don’t see it happening. I really get the sense that this team could be dangerous if they had a player like Artemi Panarin, if only they had someone like that available to them.
