Getting Defensive

We all know how bad the Rangers defense has been…particularly over the last three games where they’ve let in an astonishing 15 goals. Much of the problems have been attributed to the Ranger defensemen and in recent days Brian Leetch, Vladimir Malakhov and Peter Smrek have been attacked vigorously for contributing to another weak start to the season.

But who really is to blame? We decided to go inside the statistics for the Ranger blueliners and try to separate the fact from the fiction and maybe get some insight as to why the Rangers have been so bad defensively. Certainly some blame can be put on the heads of the forwards and goaltending, but in most cases it is ultimately the responsibility of the defenseman to keep the opposition from getting the shot on net…