{"id":177436,"date":"2021-02-13T09:47:07","date_gmt":"2021-02-13T06:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/rangers-show-positive-signs-despite-obvious-offensive-woes\/"},"modified":"2021-02-13T09:47:07","modified_gmt":"2021-02-13T06:47:07","slug":"rangers-show-positive-signs-despite-obvious-offensive-woes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/rangers-show-positive-signs-despite-obvious-offensive-woes\/","title":{"rendered":"#Rangers show positive signs despite obvious offensive woes"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Rangers show positive signs despite obvious offensive woes<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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Look, there were silver linings to this one, most definitely so, but at the end of the night, the Rangers were still drenched under that black cloud that has followed the team\u2019s putative offensive stars and the power play from game<\/a> to game to game. <\/p>\n

Three contests at the Garden this week, a sum of two goals scored, with those put into the net by Kevin Rooney and Julien Gauthier. That adds up to three defeats (albeit with one loser\u2019s point) following Friday\u2019s 1-0 loss to the Bruins in as combative a contest as the Rangers have played.<\/p>\n

It was the Baby Blueshirts and the Big Bad Bruins (well, for this era, though fellas like Wayne Cashman, Ted Green, Pie McKenzie and Derek Sanderson would chortle over that app<\/a>ellation) and the more experienced, deeper, better team was able to come away with the two points.<\/p>\n

But it was not easy. The Rangers were not an easy opponent even if they did not do enough to disrupt Jaroslav Halak in nets and once again pretty much didn\u2019t do a thing with the extra man to disrupt Boston\u2019s penalty kill on any of their six power plays.<\/p>\n

Sorry, my mistake: the Blueshirts had two <\/em>extra men for the final 1:02 of the contest with Charlie McAvoy in the box for delay of game and Igor Shesterkin pulled from the ice. In perhaps the most futile snapshot of these power-play blues, the Rangers couldn\u2019t even win a series<\/a> of puck battles below the goal line despite owning numbers.<\/p>\n

The Rangers competed all night. The young guys hung in against an opponent that is 10-1-2 and, as essentially has been the case for the last 11 years, a top-shelf Stanley Cup contender. It was, in many ways, a playoff-type contest, crisp and fast in the first period, then contentious right from the drop of the puck in the second.<\/p>\n

\"Mika
Mika Zibanejad<\/figcaption>
Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe game started to become a man\u2019s game and, listen, they have more men than we do. That\u2019s just a fact,\u201d said David Quinn, who probably could have used a little bit better phraseology there. \u201cBut I liked the way we stood up, we didn\u2019t back down, we kept playing, and they get a goal we were not able to get.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a team that\u2019s competing for the Stanley Cup and built to win right now. They play the right way and we can learn an awful lot of lessons from them, but I was proud of the way we stood toe-to-toe with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the lessons management might learn is that a no-nonsense, hard-edged bottom six is necessary for ultimate success. Perhaps cap limitations prevented such construction last offseason, but that must be Priority One this summer. <\/p>\n

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