THW's Rangers News

THW's Rangers news for 03/22/2021

March 22, 2021

The latest Rangers stories from The Hockey Writers.

 

03/22/2021 edition:

By Brian Abate on Mar 22, 2021 10:17 am

The New York Rangers entered this season with high expectations after playing excellent hockey late in the regular season last year. One of the driving forces behind that success was the great play of Mika Zibanejad, who developed into a star center. He got off to a very slow start this season, struggling to produce offensively, but in recent games he has broken through and once again is playing like a star for the Rangers.

Zibanejad’s High Expectations and Disappointing Start to the Season

When the coronavirus pandemic brought a halt to the 2019-20 NHL season, no one was playing at a higher level than Zibanejad. He had 24 goals and 16 assists in New York’s final 25 games of the regular season, including a spectacular five-goal performance against the Washington Capitals. His one-timer was powerful and accurate and he excelled on the power play.

Every time Zibanejad had a shift, it felt as though the ice was tilted in the Rangers’ favor. He finished with 41 goals and 34 assists in just 57 games, and was one of the team’s best defensive forwards.

Entering this season, the expectation was that he would continue to play like a star, but his season got off to a rocky start as he missed most of training camp after testing positive for coronavirus. He returned just in time for the season opener and while he didn’t miss any games, he looked rusty early in the season.

In the first few weeks of the season, Zibanejad seemed to be a step slower and his timing was clearly off. He struggled to connect on his slapshots and frequently missed the net on scoring opportunities. In his first 15 games of the season, he had just one goal and two assists.

During New York’s next eight games, he began to play better and created more scoring opportunities while playing well defensively. He was skating better and was more noticeable on the ice, but still struggled with his shot, fanning or missing the net on too many of his slapshots. However, he still had two goals and six assists in those eight games.

Zibanejad’s Recent Play

The Rangers played one of their best games this season when they beat the Boston Bruins 4-0 last week. Zibanejad played very well, assisting on the first two goals of the game. He also was excellent while shorthanded, winning battles for the puck to kill time, as the Rangers killed all five of Boston’s power-play opportunities successfully.

Two games later, against the Philadelphia Flyers he played one of the greatest periods in NHL history. In the second period, he scored a natural hat trick while adding three assists in the period as the Rangers routed the Flyers 9-0. He had one goal at even strength, one goal on the power play and one goal shorthanded.

In Saturday’s game against the Capitals he continued his strong play with an assist on the opening goal of the game. Then, with the score tied 1-1 late in the third period, he made a great individual effort, hustling down the ice after a dump in. He knocked Washington defenseman Brenden Dillon off the puck, stealing it and scoring from a bad angle with a great wrist shot. New York went on to win the game 3-1.

Moving Forward

The Rangers have dealt with a lot of adversity this season with key players missing many games. That, along with Zibanejad’s slump have made it difficult for the Blueshirts to get much momentum going, but they have recently gotten key players like Artemi Panarin, Jacob Trouba and Filip Chytil back in the lineup and Igor Shesterkin is expected to return from a groin injury soon. New York is currently in sixth place in the MassMutual East Division, but still has time to make a push for the postseason.

In order to have any chance at the postseason, the Rangers needed more production from Zibanejad and his play over the last five games should give the team hope that he’s broken out of his slump and is now on a hot streak. Going forward, New York will have to ride his strong play along with the great play of Panarin to string together wins in order to make their push for the postseason.

By Tom Castro on Mar 21, 2021 09:58 am

Eighty-nine games into his NHL career, the No. 2 pick in the 2019 NHL Draft remains a near-total mystery.

The New York Rangers can’t be at all sure yet what they have in winger Kaapo Kakko, the Finnish pre-draft phenom who, in a season-plus, hasn’t delivered any definitive signals about what he’ll eventually become. The pressing question now for the team that eagerly snapped him up after the New Jersey Devils took Jack Hughes first overall two years ago, is whether that uncertainty will hurt or help them in the next several months.

Kakko’s high-end skill shows up from time to time — the great hands, the touch with the puck down low, the work along the walls. There was a four-goal, three-assist spurt over seven games in October and November of his rookie season. A two-goal effort in the Rangers’ penultimate regular-season game last March, followed by an encouraging performance in the team’s three-game playoff sweep at the hands of the Carolina Hurricanes in August.

Yet Kakko was a minus-27 over 69 total games in 2019-20 and posted possession and defensive numbers that can only be described as horrific. His 23 points were disappointing as well, but team management saw the encouraging late glimpses as an indicator that the 20-year-old was set to trend upward in Season 2.

That has happened, but it’s only added to the intrigue surrounding Kakko’s potential, not dispelled it. His advanced stats — so ugly in 2019-20 — are very strong this season. With a 53.86 Corsi For percentage, expected goals for percentage of 56.86 and scoring chances for and high danger chances for percentages also over 50, there’s lots of compelling evidence that good things happen for the Rangers when Kakko’s on the ice.

Despite those favorable numbers, Kakko hasn’t piled up the positive stats in two key categories: goals and assists. He has two and two in his 23 games, without a goal since the fourth game of the season on Jan. 22, and one assist in his last 14 games.

The competing results seem downright bizarre at times.

Pandemic Might be Affecting Kakko’s Development

Kakko also missed six games after landing in the COVID-19 protocol, only returning March 6 in a 6-3 victory over the Devils, but he went right back to doing good things. He delivered an assist on Ryan Strome’s first-period goal in that game and was a plus-2 in 18 minutes of work.

Years from now, we may look back on the 2020-21 NHL season as something of a throwaway one when it came to young player development. Routines have been disrupted, not to mention the past two seasons. Players find themselves removed from the lineup suddenly due to the COVID protocol, and the Rangers’ entire coaching staff has been no exception to that rule. Can the progress of a player who was a teenager until last month be accurately measured under the duress of a masked-up, socially-distant world that’s been turned upside down for more than a year now?

The answer might be no. Nonetheless, Kakko’s failure to pair offensive production with his significantly better all-around play makes the Rangers’ efforts to form an accurate evaluation of their prized second-year player that much harder — that’s a problem, because the club might need to make one as soon as this offseason.

That’s because general manager Jeff Gorton is expected to ramp up efforts to acquire more help at center, with Buffalo Sabres star Jack Eichel, the potential big fish, should he become available in a trade over the summer. Obtaining the No. 2 pick in the 2015 Draft will require significant capital in the form of young players and draft picks. The Rangers have to be as comfortable as possible — if the opportunity to acquire Eichel arises — that they aren’t giving away a future superstar in the process.

That comfort only comes with intimate knowledge of a player’s capabilities and future prospects, and there’s no way Gorton can claim he possesses that when it comes to Kakko at the moment.

Judging players this young is almost always difficult, of course. Filip Chytil also made his debut as an 18-year-old for the Rangers after being drafted 21st overall in 2017 and has alternated between tantalizing and frustrating them ever since. The trend lines since the start of last season have been more consistent, as it appears the talented center might be on the verge of breaking out. However, nearly four years after arriving, the Blueshirts still aren’t sure what they have in Chytil.

The 21-year-old Czech, though, was picked in the second half of the first round. Kakko was a top-three selection, the rarified draft air from which elite players are supposed to consistently emerge. Is it just a matter of time before that happens? Will the Rangers wait as long for Kakko as they have for Chytil?

Rest of Season Should Be Key Evaluation Period for Kakko

The Rangers have 26 games left in this regular season, more if they find a way into the playoffs, to formulate that assessment for a possible trade for Eichel or someone else this summer. Can Kakko give the general manager enough to go on in regards to his immediate future? Is he getting close to becoming a force, the rise of his all-around game a precursor to his offense catching up? Or is his slow NHL start an indicator that stardom not in the cards for the player who was dominant in the 2019 World Championships after recording 38 points in 45 games as a 17- and 18-year old in Finland’s Liiga during the 2018-19 season?

On the other side of the coin, the opaqueness surrounding Kakko’s potential could work in a positive way for the Rangers. His failure to set the league on fire to this point could mean the Sabres aren’t interested in him as part of a return for Eichel, which would prove convenient if he stays with the Rangers and then blossoms. Or, Buffalo bets on his ceiling while his stock remains high as a young player, and ends up having buyer’s regret when stardom proves elusive for Kakko.

Ultimately, Gorton would like to see Kakko rise to prominence in a Rangers jersey, finishing rushes with one-timers, battling around the net and playing a key role on the power play from his spot on the right side by the circle. Yet Eichel would be a huge get, exactly what the team needs, and they are are flush with talented wingers like Kakko. Is he a future fixture in the team’s top-six, or the featured asset heading to Western New York in a blockbuster trade?

Kakko has less than half of this pandemic-shortened season remaining to make his case.

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