An Offensive Defense

Ah yes, the Rangers have too many offensive defensemen…how often have you heard that line on message boards around the Internet?  Well in a way I agree with that comment, but not perhaps in the sense that the writers intended.

What those posters really mean is of course that the Rangers have too many offensively minded blueliners who are looking to jump up in the play given the chance, and if you look at the numbers on the defensive side of the puck (29th in Goals Against, 30th in Penalty Kill) you might be inclined to agree.  But that’s not why I’m writing this article today…

Rather lets for a moment take a look at the other side of the equation.  Rangers General Manager, Glen Sather has constructed this team to play an offensive style of game and therefore the need for offensive minded defensemen.  On first pass it looks like the Rangers got fairly good production out of their blueliners…10th overall in points (146) and 12 in power play points (46), but let’s take a closer look.

Last season the Rangers entire defensive corps managed just 22 goals which put them 28th in the league, ahead of just Pittsburgh and Boston.  Those 22 goals accounted for less than ten percent of the Rangers total, a figure that ranked them ahead of Boston alone.  On the power play things were just as bad…a total of 4 power play goals for the season tied them for 29th with Calgary and was five fewer than the league average.

To be fair the Rangers did go with four forwards on their first power play unit, which reduced the opportunities for the defensemen to score to some extent.  You can’t however, say the Rangers defense had no chances…Leetch managed just one goal with 394 minutes of power play time, the most power play time of anyone on the team.  Malakhov spent 206 minutes with the man advantage for his solitary goal, while Berard had a fruitless 173 minutes.  By contrast, Tom Poti and Darren Van Impe needed just 30 and 36 minutes respectively to register their lone power play goals.

So what happened?

A large part of the blame belongs to the coaching staff.  Even during their successful run in November of last season, the Rangers power play failed to get going, while the coaches persisted with Fleury on the point.  Opposition goalies had clear sight of the shot from the blueline and had little worry of a rebound being picked up by a Ranger forward driving to the net.  The Rangers couldn’t even get the defense moving with their passing on the power play and thus the points weren’t really given much opportunity.  The same to some extent can be said for even strength, when once again the point men were underutilized. 

More blame can of course be placed on the players themselves.  Brian Leetch’s solitary power play goal was the lowest since his rookie year where he played just 17 games, while his 10 goals was fewer than half of his previous season’s total of 21.  Berard too was a disappointment considering all the hype that surrounded his return.  his 2 goal total was the lowest of his career, though perhaps not too surprising considering he had just 3 in his last season of 64 games with Toronto.  And the of course Malakhov, who started well but ended the season a little flat.  Probably to be expected considering he’d played just 24 games in the previous two seasons, and was asked to play a more defensive role while paired with Leetch.

So how do they improve?

First off you get forwards standing and driving to the front of the net.  It seems year after year we say the same thing…hopefully with the addition of Holik and a new coaching staff, we’ll start to see a little more of that happening in the upcoming season.

Go with two defensemen on the points of the power play.  Fleury is now gone and to be honest he wasn’t particularly effective at keeping the puck in the zone anyway…by putting Leetch and Poti on the points you get two players with good shots and the familiarity of playing the defensive position.  Get the forwards to actually rotate back to the point when the defensemen skates in and you’ve probably got one of the best power play units in the league.

Letting go of Berard and adding Poti was also a big step.  Berard was not particularly strong offensively and was often times a liability on defense.  Poti while not the greatest defenseman has seemingly better potential on offense.  His lone goal for the Rangers in his brief eleven game stint did come on the power play…an encouraging sign.

Finally, either split Leetch and Malakhov or take a long look at a player like Lintner or Tutin in camp.  Putting either one of those on the third pairing would enable the Rangers to go with two defensive pairings on the power play and would provide some puck moving ability on the third pair.  It’s a riskier move given that their partner will probably be one of Karpa, Kloucek or Lefebvre, but the risk might be worth it.

Yes, last year’s Rangers defensemen were offensive, but in the unappealing sense.  I am optimistic this year that the new coaching staff can implement a better approach to the game than what we’ve seen and that will be a big part of any success the Rangers enjoy this year, but there are some key players who will need to step up for this season and I expect nothing less.