Rangers can’t let unfair system force them into tearing up team

This has been a half-measure season for the Rangers, who did not wipe out the roster and have not been either consistently bad enough or gotten enough questionable goaltending to be in a prime pre-lottery location.

There is, however, plenty of time for them to descend to that destination, even in light of Tuesday’s conscientious 3-1 Garden victory over the Ducks that represented the Rangers’ ninth regulation-time win of the year, tied with the Kings for second-fewest in the league behind Detroit’s seven.

The paltry 60-minute win total, more than the camouflaged 15-13-4 record that is bolstered by a league-best five shootout victories, reflects the team’s relative strength. The fact that the Rangers are only four points out of a playoff spot the week before Christmas is indicative of the misleading nature of the NHL’s nobody-really-loses point system.

Understand this, too. The Rangers are five points ahead of the 28th-overall Flyers and seven up on the 29th-overall Blues (pending St. Louis’ match at Edmonton on Tuesday night) following this victory that gave the team a 3-5-3 record for this 11-game quadrant that is a reasonable facsimile of the opening 3-7-1 getaway. It is the 9-1-1 spree separating the first and latest subsections of the season that is the aberration.

If you want to label the Rangers’ play since Thanksgiving as a television series, you could call it “This is Us.” For, honestly, despite good intentions and, for the most part, good work habits, the Blueshirts are not big enough, strong enough, fast enough or talented enough to hang in through a winter that doesn’t even begin for another two days.

The schedule, both in terms of quantity and quality, has been a piece of cake. Distractions as they relate to noise anticipating a second consecutive trade-deadline sell-off have been kept to a minimum. But the schedule picks up, 26 of the final 49 are on the road — where the 4-9-2 Rangers have won only via the shootout — and deadline chatter will increase and seep into the room.

I will say this, not for the first time and certainly not for the last: It is terribly unfair to penalize teams who are not good enough to win anything for trying to put representative lineups on the ice during a rebuild. The draft, even with a lottery system that makes it dicey for clubs to go into full tank-mode, is unfair. Front offices should not face implied pressure to gut their teams and force season ticket-holders to pony up big bucks to watch an intentionally bad team. It is unfair when a team like the Rangers can lose for winning. But that is the reality.

There is no need for another Letter. The course was charted last February. Even if the Rangers manage to elevate and exceed expectations over the next two months, ownership/management will not deviate from the plan in order to satisfy a sweet-tooth craving to shock the world and qualify for the playoffs. Not happening.

see also

Chris Kreider playing by instinct and hoping Rangers will follow

Sometimes, Chris Kreider’s active mind inhibits his natural ability. And…

But neither should the plan include stripping the team bare and going into a Starting All Over mode. That approach would make this an entirely Lost Season. Because if management goes down that road now, what then was the point of signing Vlad Namestnikov and Ryan Spooner (who became Ryan Strome) and trading for Adam McQuaid? What was the point, then, of starting Henrik Lundqvist in 25 of the first 32 games?

The Rangers sure could have been awful, just awful, if that was the plan. They could have had an entire 2018-19 that was a copy of the post-deadline 2017-18 by having AHL players masquerade as big-leaguers. But not only would that have been terribly unfair to the folks who pay the heavy freight of attending games in Manhattan, neither does it represent a sure-shot blueprint for success.

I will say this again, too, not for the first time and certainly not the last: The Rangers should not trade Kevin Hayes, whose shorthanded goal with 40 seconds remaining broke a 1-1 tie, unless the impending free agent’s ask on a new contract is completely unrealistic or an interested third party offers a young, first-pair right defenseman (see: Cale Makar, UMass/Colorado) in exchange for No. 13. Both of these hypotheticals are unlikely.

I don’t care whether the team is ready to contend in two years or four. This building process will not be aided by trading the center who has been the team’s best player for the past two years. All teams — even, or perhaps especially, ones in the Rangers’ position — need linchpins.

When you find them, you don’t send them away. You don’t sacrifice your few known quantities for a roll of the dice. That would represent a full measure that would leave me empty.