The Goal Drought

John Tortorella was brought to New York in hopes to change the system that the Rangers played under the defensive-minded Tom Renney. Well, so far Torts has done anything but solve the offensive problems of this club, as the team continues to descend in the standings due to the lack of goal scoring. Two is the limit for the Rangers, not only this season, but in 08-09 as well. It is a number that has haunted this team for years on end.

During their seven game winning streak in the beginning of October, the Blueshirts registered at least three or more goals in each and every one of their victories during that span, and have scored more than two goals in ten of their 14 wins on the season. Ten out of their eighteen losses (including OT losses) saw New York only putting two or less points up on the board. It goes without saying that this team is going to need to score more than two goals if they look to collect wins and make a push for the playoffs. But wait, the facts don't stop there.

The Rangers have scored two or less goals in sixteen of their last twenty contests and 14 of those sixteen fall into the loss column. The Blueshirts have not found the back of the net more than two times in six consecutive contests, with five of those games being losses. Scary facts, huh? Just goes to show you how far two goals will get you in today's NHL.

So is there a formula to this all? Is there a solution to the goal drought? For starters, Tortorella has clearly shown a lack of confidence in his own system when he decided to preach a bit of a different state of mind on the defensive end of the ice. The defensemen are no longer as aggressive as we saw during that winning streak, they are not as involved in the offense, and I personally feel like it has resulted in more goals in their own net than there were when they played the up-tempo game. in October. Boy, oh boy, Torts continues to impress.

It also seems like the forwards are not as lively on the forecheck as they once were. Yes, they have been better with this in recent games, but when you look at the struggle as a whole, the quality chances are not present often, and when they do happen to fall into the Rangers lap, they are unable to convert due to either great goaltending or simply a lack of execution. The fact that several players have been snake-bitten does not help the fact at all.

Marian Gaborik is pretty much the only one scoring, in addition to Ryan Callahan who has four in his last eight. Anyway, Gaborik creates his own goals, something that many players on this club do not have the ability to do. Just think about this for a minute. Think of all the goals you can remember in which Gaborik skated the puck on his own, created the chance, and buried the shot. Now think of how many of Callahan's seven goals he created himself. I can think of about two, maybe three. For Gaborik, he has done all of the work on at least twelve of his 23 tallies on the season.

That being said, it is not only skill that creates goals, but the willingness to do the dirty work around the net. The Rangers have always had a problem with crashing the net, and crashing the net hard. Size and strength factor into that as well, and size and strength were sacrificed when Sather went for all speed in this past summer's acquisitions. We will see how they do against the Islanders tonight, as the interstate rivals surrendered seven goals to the Florida Panthers in their last game.

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