The Rangers completed a trip through western Canada over the weekend, going a miserable 0-2-1 against Vancouver, Edmonton, and Calgary. They played well in Vancouver, but lost due to some questionable officiating. But the two games in Alberta were train wrecks, with the Rangers giving up 12 goals total in those games. Time for some additional thoughts.
1. Those that paid attention to the underlying stats saw this coming. The Rangers were playing above their heads, relying too much on goaltending and unsustainable shooting, and not playing a puck possession game. All of the team’s issues were masked by the goaltending and shooting, and now we are seeing this come crashing down to Earth.