Rangers’ recent surge likely not enough to make them renters at deadline
Regarding the Rangers, on a two-game heater and 4-1-1 in their six games going into Colorado on Tuesday before closing the road swing in Utah on Thursday:
1. For the first time in months, the Blueshirts seem connected on and off the ice. There is purpose to their game. There is commitment to the unit. Work ethic has returned. So has credibility.
But as the Rangers sit four points back of the final playoff spot with five teams to pass, this recent uptick probably won’t have a dramatic effect on the hierarchy’s plan approaching the March 7 trade deadline.
Rest assured, general manager Chris Drury will not be in the rental market to plug holes to make a run at the second wild card. The organization won’t sacrifice next year or the year after that for a few playoff gates.
The objective, just as it was when management and ownership designed the plan in late January 2018 — with a playoff spot well within reach — to tear it down and then build it right back up at the deadline, is to win the Stanley Cup and not scrape into eighth place.
2. Will Borgen, the 28-year-old righty defenseman acquired in exchange for Kaapo Kakko, has been a solid top-four at both ends of the ice. He gets pucks to the net on one end and clears bodies in front of the net at the other end.
But with No. 17 coming up on unrestricted free agency, the question is whether Borgen would have more value as a trade chip — surely at least a second-rounder, but maybe at the back end of the round depending on the destination — or on the Blueshirts blue line the next few years.
Is it a trade or an extension? I’d expect Drury to at least have preliminary discussions with Borgen’s camp before the deadline strikes.
3. I’m not sure how the Rangers can continue to go forward with Filip Chytil, when they never really know when the 25-year-old center will be available.
No one is to blame here. But Chytil, who has a history of concussions and is now out of the lineup for the second time this year with an unidentified upper-body injury, has been sidelined nine separate times with injury over the last six seasons.
The Rangers need the 25-year-old, who was the team’s best player centering the team’s best line before he went down for the first time on Nov. 14. Not only did Chytil miss seven games, it took a fair amount of time for No. 72 to recapture his game. When he did, he went down two or three games later.
Let’s say there is a trade match for Buffalo center Dylan Cozens. How can the Rangers get him as their third-line center when Chytil is there … or isn’t?
It is unfortunate. Chytil wants this so badly. His personality can light up a room and his dynamism can electrify a rink. He, Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad are the three survivors from the Alain Vigneault Era.
But you never know if he’s going to be able to play. This latest injury, you can’t even find when it happened.
Chytil has two years remaining on his contract. I can’t imagine a GM would be willing to take the risk of trading for the center. Maybe a team would, but for pennies on the dollar. That’s certainly not optimal on this side.
It is a conundrum. I don’t know what the answer is but I do know that this is not sustainable, either.
4. A year ago, Igor Shesterkin required a midseason reset following a disappointing first half. The franchise netminder then emerged from the All-Star break at an elite level that he maintained throughout the remainder of the regular season and the playoffs.
Now, Shesterkin’s week-plus, three-game stay on IR following the Dec. 30 crash with Florida’s Sam Bennett, may have had the same effect.
Shesterkin and Jonathan Quick had both been under siege for the first six weeks of the season, the netminders somehow nimble enough to fill holes in the dike so that the Rangers were 12-4-1 when playing like 4-12-1.
But as the club totally broke down, so did the netminders. So did Shesterkin, whose penchant for surrendering marginal goals over the second half of December became an issue.
Since his return, Shesterkin excelled against New Jersey on Thursday and in Vegas on Saturday with stronger play in front of him. The Rangers are built on the proposition that their goaltender is the best in the world. That’s what they need Shesterkin to be.
5. Since three-on-three overtime was adopted in 2015-16, the Rangers have won 45 and lost 46 within the confines of the five minutes of extra time.
And when Sam Carrick beat the Devils’ Jacob Markstrom at the Garden at 2:48 on Thursday, it marked the first time a fourth-liner had scored for the Blueshirts under this format.
Carrick, however, might not be the unlikeliest Ranger to score in three-on-three. That distinction may in fact belong to Kevin Klein, the generally stay-at-home defenseman Kevin Klein, whose goal against Detroit’s Jimmy Howard gave his team a 1-0 victory at the Garden on Feb. 21, 2016.
Maybe we can call it a tie.
