I never thought that I would see the day when the New York Rangers were leading the Eastern Conference with a 22-8-4 record in late December. My hopes for the team this season were slightly higher than usual, I'll give you that much, but by no means did I expect the Blueshirts to have less than ten losses through 33 games played. And not only that, I did not foresee this team playing hockey as well as they have this season, either, even with the addition of star center Brad Richards in the offseason. I was under the impression that, for the second straight year, we were going to see a blue-collar hockey club battle its way through the season, enduring the bumps and bruises along the way, and find success throughout effort and grit.
Instead, though, this team has shown their ability to dominate, to overpower and out-skill. When was the last time you could apply any of those actions to the New York Rangers? I cannot recall a single season in my lifetime in which that has been the case for this team, granted I am younger than the average reader on this blog, but still, this has been a standout season for sure.
The funny thing is, I'm still hearing a lot of people saying that the Rangers have gotten off to a great "start". Start? I don't know how some people break-up the regular season schedule, but I certainly do not consider December to be included in the "start" of a season, nor do I consider any games past the first ten to fifteen as the "start" of a season. When the Rangers take on the Washington Capitals tonight, they will be dropping the puck on their thirty-fourth contest of the 2011-12 season. That's just eight games (inducing this one) away from the midway point of the 82-game schedule. Folks, we are beyond the "start" of the season, and the Rangers have had a little more than just a great "start".
Ironically, the Rangers' actual start to the season, which had them at 3-3-3 at one point, was a complete disgrace. If you recall, the club's poor play in early October had the fan base in severe panic mode. This may all seem irrelevant and not pertaining to the content of this article, but it all is a part of the surprise factor. The Rangers have played some solid hockey for a good half-season now, and they deserve to be recognized for that. I'm sick of hearing "they are off to a great start". Their start sucked and they have played amazing ever since - get the facts aligned correctly, please.
Anyway, there is only one team better than the Rangers in the National Hockey League right now, and that's the Chicago Blackhawks. Consider, though, the fact that the Hawks only have two points on the Rangers, yet have also played two more games than New York to this point. What am I getting at with this? Well, I'm basically just trying to point out that the Rangers have a legitimate chance of becoming the NHL's top team in the next few games. I'm well aware that some of you do not wish to pay attention to the standings with several months of regular season hockey still left on the calendar, but when your team is climbing to the very top of that list with extensive winning streaks, it's hard to ignore it.
What makes this all a tad more impressive is that the Rangers, at least based on what I read going into this season, were not expected to be nearly as good as they have been. To be honest, I really don't give a damn what the media "professionals" have to say about the Rangers. I actually believe very little of what I read out there now-a-days, so I did not get too into the prediction garbage before this season. However, I did take a look at some of the rankings, and a majority of them had the Rangers making the playoffs as one of the bottom two or three seeds. At the time, I probably agreed with those rankings too, but things have changed since. As I pointed out, the Rangers are emerging as one of the NHL's very best, and that is something as fans that we should be damn proud of.
There's plenty of reasons why the Rangers are in the midst of such a successful season right now, but in my eyes, it all comes down to the attention they have paid to details this season. By that I mean they have been a team of perfectionists who work to correct a problem as soon as it arises, or tackle a new challenge whenever it presents itself. I think this new identity that the Rangers have taken on goes hand-in-hand with the personalty of their head coach, John Tortorella, but that is another debate for another time.
Going back to why the Rangers have been so successful, just sit back and think through the ups and (the few) downs the Rangers have experienced this season. They had a streaky start, so they fixed it by going on back-to-back lengthy winning streaks in late October into November. They lost some key defenseman in the lineup, so they found equally as good replacements through their own pool of prospects. They lacked speed, so they brought up lightning-quick rookie Carl Hagelin. They started off rocky on home ice? Not a problem, they now have the fourth-most wins while playing at home in the league. For every problem they face, the New York Rangers have come up with an even better, stronger solution. Very few teams in the present-day NHL have that ability, and very few Ranger teams of the past have had that ability, so you can consider this year's team to be a very special one.
Of course it all means nothing if the Rangers cannot continue to impress and take the league by surprise once we delve into the second half of the regular season. However, seeing the way this team has played over a two and a half month span now, I don't foresee any tragic collapse coming their way in the near future. From top to bottom, this is a solid hockey club who, no matter the circumstances, has the resources to get the job done each night.
Credit management, credit the coaches, credit the players - whoever may be behind the Rangers' ongoing string of success this season should be considered a genius, because they've taken a "decent" roster and made one of the league's "best" teams out of it. For that reason, I consider the Rangers to be this year's surprise team in the National Hockey League.