New York Rangers: At 1-5, team still searching for an identity

At 1-5, the New York Rangers are trying to figure out their identity.

This was not the start the New York Rangers and coach Alain Vigneault had in mind. This is a team that got faster last season and figured out how to put up some goals. The Rangers were fifth in the league in goals last season, to put things in perspective. Players like Michael Grabner drove the offense forward and the Rangers once again were in the playoffs, making it to the second round.

This year, they looked to improve on defense by getting younger. Dan Girardi is gone after a long career on Broadway and Kevin Shattenkirk is in town in his place. We could go through all of the details, but the moral of the story is that the Rangers looked to put together a complete team to take another run at the cup. The time is running out on Henrik Lundqvist so being a now team is important.

Well, the year has started out quite poorly. As of this post, the Rangers sit at 1-5. They are 23rd in the league in goal scoring. The goals against average is 3.50. It has not been pretty. Yes it’s a long season and we are only six games into it. The trouble is, not only are they playing poorly but they also have no idea of their identity. We haven’t learned any more about it than we knew before the season started.

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Just look at the results so far. The Rangers have lost 8-5, 4-2, won 2-0, then lost 3-1 in back to back games and 3-2 in the most recent game. That gives us a lot of information, actually.

We do not know if this is going to be a high-scoring Rangers squad or a grind it out defensive team. The scores indicate they are having difficulty winning either type of game. They have been outscored in shootout games, and they have been unable to muster enough offense in defensive games.

All of that leads to a 1-5 record and a team searching for direction in the new season.

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It’s not a drastic problem at this point as we are very early in the season. Six games into an 82 game season leaves a lot of time to figure out their identity. The Rangers had better get it done, though. They have to figure out what type of team they are and build around that, otherwise it will be a long season, and maybe Alain Vigneault’s last.

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