The Rangers' Offense Continues to Struggle

Last season, the New York Rangers had trouble keeping the puck out of their net, but had no problems scoring goals at the other end.

It appears that the reverse is happening this season. The Blueshirts have done a terrific job preventing goals as they have given up just 15 goals in eight games, which puts them seventh in the league in that category.

Scoring goals, on the other hand, has not been easy to come by for this year's version of the Rangers. As of this writing (Tuesday, October 21), they are 21st in the league in goals scored as they have scored 16 goals in eight games.

There are several reasons why the Rangers are struggling to score goals so far this season. For starters, their shot selection has been abysmal.

More often than not, this team is making life very easy for opposing goaltenders. The team takes a lot of shots from the outside, they do not create enough traffic in front of the other team's goaltenders, and there have been too many one and done plays in the offensive zone where they take one shot and then the play dies.

After Monday night's 3-1 loss to the Minnesota Wild at Madison Square Garden, Rangers' captain J.T. Miller told reporters that his team needs to dig deeper to score goals and win hockey games.

"We have to find a way to bear down in those tight 2-1 games," forward J.T. Miller said. "Let's be honest, we didn't deserve to win, but that was a game we could have stolen. It's happened to us."

Miller then told reporters that he had a few opportunities where he should have done more to put the puck in the back of the net.

"I had two tonight that should have been in the back of the net for me," Miller said. "That game should have been 2-1. We should have been playing with the lead and I didn't bear down."

Mika Zibanejad, someone who has looked much better this season, echoed Miller's thoughts as he was stymied on a glorious chance by Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson in the third period not long after the Wild scored to take the lead in the third period.

"I have to score on that one," he said. "Do I want to? Yeah. But I'm not scoring on that chance. There's a couple more that missed. I have to do a better job of bearing down on the chances that I'm getting."

Another reason why the Rangers are not putting the puck in the net on a consistent basis is because their power play has been dreadful. The Rangers are currently 24th in the league with the man advantage as they have converted on just 15 percent of the opportunities they have been given so far.

On a team that has the likes of Miller, Zibanejad, Artemi Panarin, Alexis Lafreniere, Adam Fox, and Will Cuylle, the Rangers should be able to score on the power play. Yes, Vincent Trocheck is out and that certainly hurts their chances, but this team has guys who can contribute when they have the man advantage.

Lastly, and this might be tough to accept if you are a Rangers' fan, the team's offense is not deep enough. After the club's top six forwards, the scoring depth drops in a significant way.

The team's bottom six consist of players that are not known for scoring goals. Guys like Sam Carrick, Juuso Parssinen, Adam Edstrom, Matt Rempe, Noah Laba, and Taylor Raddysh certainly are not going to become goal-scoring machines anytime soon.

Like Miller and Zibanejad said above, this team needs to bear down more if they want to score goals. The Blueshirts cannot continue to rely on the consistent excellent goaltending that Igor Shesterkin has been providing in order to win hockey games.

Simply put, the Rangers need to go out and start pumping pucks into the back of the net. If they are not able to do that, it is going to be another long and frustrating season on Broadway for the team and their fans.