So here it is, three games into the season, three winless games into the season and the grand plan already has been altered following a 4-2 Coliseum defeat to the Islanders in which the Rangers established they will continue to lose if they can't find the way to spend less time in the penalty box and more time with the puck at both ends of the ice.
Mats Zuccarello, lost on a mismatched fourth line, is on his way to the AHL Whale after getting 7:55 of ice that included a 24-second shift in the third. Up in his place comes Kris Newbury to add some muscle (or to perhaps sit as a scratch once Wojtek Wolski rejoins the lineup) as the 0-1-2 Blueshirts go west for games in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg before finally getting to the Garden on Oct. 27.
hat trick and help the Islanders celebrate (inset) a 4-2 victory over the Rangers last night. " title="JOHNNY ON THE SHOT: John Tavares smiles as he shoots past a diving Marian Gaborik for an empty-net goal to complete a hat trick and help the Islanders celebrate (inset) a 4-2 victory over the Rangers last night. " width="300" height="300" src="/rw/nypost/2011/10/16/sports/web_photos/16.1s078.rangers1--300x300.jpg" />
Paul J. Bereswill
JOHNNY ON THE SHOT: John Tavares smiles as he shoots past a diving Marian Gaborik for an empty-net goal to complete a hat trick and help the Islanders celebrate (inset) a 4-2 victory over the Rangers last night.
By then, perhaps the Blueshirts will have found a way to stop the parade to the penalty box that has left the team shorthanded 19 times overall, eight times last night when John Tavares scored a pair of power-play goals before sealing his hat trick and his team's victory with an empty netter.
By then, perhaps the Rangers will have found the way to get to the puck more quickly while being more decisive with it in their own end while controlling play off the forecheck with a down-low ground game that's basically been non-existent through the opening three matches.
"We definitely want to have more control of the puck to make plays with it in our end," said Dan Girardi, who played 26:50 but took an interference penalty at 3:23 of the third for the power play on which Tavares scored what proved to be the winner seven seconds later. "And in their end, we're definitely at our best when we win the puck, hang onto it, and get into a cycle game."
The fact is, the defense appears rather slow-footed and deliberate. Michael Del Zotto, who is neither, is struggling to defend. Fact, too, is that the club hasn't been able to generate a consistent attack where one shift rolls into the next.
It's been hit-or-miss, with most of last night's hits (not in the literal sense) provided by the Derek Stepan-Brad Richards-Marian Gaborik unit. Stepan was on top of the puck throughout playing just his seventh NHL game on the wing. Richards and Gaborik continued to build chemistry, with Gaborik darting into seams, demanding the puck and receiving it.
Indeed, Richards delivered a headman feed to spring Gaborik up the middle for the sniper's breakaway goal at 6:23 of the second for a 1-1 tie. Gaborik, who has scored twice, had eight shots on net, while Richards contributed six and Stepan a pair, the line thus accounting for 16 of the team's 31 tries against Evgeni Nabokov.
Brandon Prust did score a wraparound that made it 2-2 late in the second after Tavares' first power-play goal, but that bit of grinding was more an exception that the rule with the Brandon Dubinsky-Artem Anisimov-Ryan Callahan line struggling to assert itself and Brian Boyle struggling for the third straight game.
"I can't take penalties like that," said Boyle, who closed his hand on the puck while the Rangers already were a man down in the second for a delay of game penalty signifying his fourth minor in three games and who later lost the faceoff preceding Tavares' winner. "I expect more from myself, in every situation.
"It's a little bit frustrating right now."
Imagine how frustrating it is to be Zuccarello.
larry.brooks@nypost.com
marian gaborik, john tavares, dan girardi, vancouver calgary, del zotto, cycle game, kris newbury, ground game, seven seconds, wolski, penalty box, hat trick, eight times, three games, power play, puck, inset, tavares, islanders, netter
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