The twilight zone the Rangers operated in between management’s Feb. 8 rebuild decree and the Feb. 26 trade deadline has given way to another dimension, one in which projections for the future are at least partially on hold pending resolution of their coaching issue.
For impressions created over the final month of the season may be washed away like footprints on the beach at low tide if, as seems likely given general manager Jeff Gorton’s refusal on at least two occasions to address the status of five-year incumbent Alain Vigneault, a change is made behind the bench.
A new coach brings with him a new system and, invariably, his own opinions on personnel and how to employ it.
Still, though, the Rangers have a passel of players including Kevin Hayes, Brady Skjei, Vladislav Namestnikov, Ryan Spooner and Jimmy Vesey coming up on restricted free-agent status whose final kicks will surely influence their respective salary arbitration cases and management’s response to them.
Plus, the extended auditions for defensemen Neal Pionk, John Gilmour and Tony DeAngelo should inform Gorton as he and the hockey department mull decisions regarding the blue line whose future management sought to strengthen via deadline acquisitions of prospects Libor Hajek, Ryan Lindgren and Yegor Rykov.
But, perhaps critically, this final stretch should also provide a platform for Pavel Buchnevich to showcase his talents and give the Rangers a better feel for what they have in the sophomore right winger, who will turn 23 next month. After all, ice time is open following the departures of Rick Nash and J.T. Miller.
Then again, maybe not, for this night on which the Blueshirts were blanked 3-0 by the Jets at the Garden, Buchnevich was benched for all but one brief shift during the first half of the third period before getting three turns worth 2:32 over the final 9:33.
“He just missed a couple of shifts, that’s all,” Vigneault said when asked about his absence before confirming the winger was not hurt.
So the dance goes on with Buchnevich and Vigneault.
Players have to earn their ice time, and it has always been thus, whether in this new-age NHL, the trap-era NHL or the Original Six NHL.
That most certainly applies to Buchnevich. It would even if he played for a coach who might be more forgiving of youthful indiscretions. There undeniably have been games in which Buchnevich has been less than engaged.
But 11th on the team among forwards in five-on-five ice time, as Buchnevich is clocking in at 11:23 per, seems out of whack and a misuse of assets, especially on a 2017-18 Rangers team searching all year for production and a go-to unit.
For two years, Chris Kreider on the left, Mika Zibanejad in the middle and Buchnevich on the right has seemed like a top line — or second line — in the making. Zibanejad — who missed this one with flu-like symptoms — suffered a concussion that sidelined him for nine games in early December, while Kreider missed 24 straight following the discovery of his blood clot in late December. Hence, the three were all healthy in only 39 of the first 65 matches. But they were also united for only 26 games despite dramatically elevated possession numbers as measured against the rest of the squad.
Vigneault and the Rangers use their own analytical measures. Corsi is not infallible as official game sheets invariably contain errors. But still, the Kreider-Zibanejad-Buchnevich unit recorded a 56.2 percent Corsi rating while the rest of the team went 44.65 when the three forwards were all in the lineup.
Again. Shot attempts are not necessarily determinative. But, interestingly enough, these are guys who don’t shoot — who won’t shoot — until they see the whites of opposing goaltenders’ eyes, which is to say that they’re not piling up their totals by blasting away from the perimeter. And the line’s overall plus-minus was even, eight goals for and eight goals against.
No doubt, a combined eight goals scored in 249:10 doesn’t exactly flatter the line. But that’s a function of the trio’s unaccountably low 5.1 percent shooting percentage that must, to some extent, be owed to bad luck.
The line hummed on the western Canadian tour, producing three goals in three games while generating a 60.4 percent Corsi in its five games since Kreider’s return while the remainder of the team was just under 40 percent.
There is exactly one month to go this season. Time enough for Buchnevich to give everyone an idea of who he is and what he can do. Or not.