What's Wrong With the New York Rangers?

Last night's 3-1 loss at the hands of the New Jersey Devils was actually a microcosm of the start to this New York Rangers season. Getting behind early, the turnovers in their own end, the non-existent power play and the inability to kill a power play are pretty much all the reasons that the Rangers are sitting at 4-5, with 8 points and are on the outside looking in when it comes to the playoff picture.

Normally, you wouldn't freak out after the first nine games but these aren't your normal circumstances when you consider this season is only 48 games long. Some people want to freak out about how the Rangers traded away role players to acquire a super star and it's not working out. Here's what I say to you. Stop it. Have you been paying attention? That super star they acquired in Rick Nash is routinely the best player on the ice when he's out there. You didn't even know Brandon Dubinsky was playing half the time.

It's not the front office, it's everything; including John Tortorella. He should know better than to keep changing the lines who play together every shift. Last night he's putting the rookie call up JT Miller on the ice with Carl Hagelin and Brad Richards. Richards needs to learn to play together with Nash and Gaborik. Put Miller on a line with Hagelin and Chris Kreider and there won't be another line in hockey that can keep up with them. Let Richards learn to play with Nash because that first line needs to dominate opposing teams and that's not happening right now. There are only 39 games left, you can't be playing around with combinations at this point.

And lastly, let's not kid ourselves King Henrik has been below average this year. I don't care that there was no training camp, you're a professional, you should be ready to go day one. Lundqvist has actually looked terrible at times. If he doesn't get better they have no chance this season. They don't score enough to win when Lundqvist doesn't play well.

What also needs to change is their mentality. They need to change the "We need to get punched in the face before we start playing" mentality and actually get out on top of teams early on. Also, getting into attack mode on the power play would be nice. We've seen them not even get a shot on goal on the power play far too many times. Maybe I'm totally wrong here, but this is just what I see. Hopefully you can see that it's a laundry list of problems the Rangers are having. And if they don't get them correctly quickly, they'll be watching the postseason from their couch.