Hartnett: Rangers Are Suffering Through A Full-Blown Defensive Crisis

By Sean Hartnett
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On Tuesday night, the Rangers gave away a game they had no business giving away.

The Blueshirts looked in complete control against the Islanders, carrying a 2-1 lead toward the end of the second period. Islanders goalie Jaroslav Halak was under constant pressure and his teammates were coughing up the puck with great frequency.

Then the game was flipped on its head thanks to two brutal turnovers by Rangers defenseman Mike Kostka. With five minutes remaining, Kostka scuffled behind Henrik Lundqvist's net and passed the puck directly to Islanders winger Nikolay Kulemin, who quickly dished a one-timer that was buried by captain John Tavares.

The scoreboard read 2-2 at the second intermission. Kostka shouldn't have seen the ice for another second. The 28-year-old defenseman looked skittish through two periods of his Rangers debut after showing a tendency to commit turnovers throughout the preseason.

Had John Tortorella still been coaching the Blueshirts, Kostka would have been glued to the bench for the rest of the night and he would have piled heavy minutes on trustworthy defensemen Ryan McDonagh, Marc Staal and Dan Girardi.

Vigneault isn't Torts, but he needed to channel his inner-Torts Tuesday night. For all the reasons the brilliant Vigneault is a superior coach to Tortorella and his stubborn, defense-obsessed Stone Age philosophies, he got burned for trusting Kostka after his first gaffe.

Then, 48 seconds into the third period, Kostka passed the puck to the tape of Kyle Okposo's stick in the slot. The Islanders winger drilled the puck past Lundqvist to give the visitors the lead for good. Then it was déjà vu all over again for the Blueshirts as the Rangers repeated the script from Sunday's home opener by losing 6-3 to the rival Isles.

Incredibly, Vigneault inexplicably kept going back to Kostka and placed him in situations where he was completely out of his comfort zone. Kostka continued to appear extremely overmatched against the Islanders' speed and puck pursuit.

Following Tuesday's defeat, Vigneault showed just how different his philosophy is toward struggling players compared to the fiery Tortorella, who constantly benched players for extended periods after costly mistakes.

"It's a game of mistakes," Vigneault said. "You have to give them an opportunity to play through them and contribute, find a way to bounce back. In that game, it didn't go the way Mike anticipated."

Kostka is not an NHL-caliber defenseman. He has yet to play a full season's worth of NHL games. He has played 64 career NHL games compared to 342 AHL games. Kostka should be sent the club's affiliate in Hartford. A younger defenseman with upside such as Conor Allen or Dylan McIlrath should be getting a chance to impress at the NHL level.

Allen generally plays mistake-free hockey, is a good skater and plays with a controlled feistiness. The slow-skating McIlrath might not be an ideal fit for Vigneault's system, but he is crucially right-handed.

Before Tuesday's game, Vigneault indicated that Matt Hunwick wasn't being scratched due to any fault of his own. Hunwick is a borderline NHL talent and a decent puck-mover who does not possess the error-prone traits of Kostka. In all reality, Hunwick is a depth defenseman at this stage of his career and not a player whom Vigneault should be leaning on.

"It's not because Hunwick has played poorly. Some guys are getting the benefit of the doubt right now," Vigneault said.

John Moore has gotten a free pass for his mistakes and lackluster play simply because the Rangers have no one else better to plug in.

As bad as Kostka was, the Rangers' blue liners as a whole contributed to a number of defensive breakdowns. The Blueshirts left clear runway lanes for the jet-like Isles to glide through. All that was missing was the Rangers waving orange sticks toward Lundqvist.

"We're not helping our goaltender enough," winger Rick Nash said. "They're getting too many chances from the middle. It's something we have to sharpen up on."

The red-hot Nash scored two goals on Tuesday night to take his league-leading total to six. As impressive as Nash has been, he can't carry this team on his own.

The Rangers are desperately missing the defensive savvy of veteran blue liner Dan Boyle and the responsible play of two-way center Derek Stepan. As both are unavailable due to long-term injuries, Boyle and Stepan can only watch on helplessly from the press box as the Rangers have stumbled out of the gates, winning just one of their first four games, while allowing 17 goals over their last three.

RANGERS POWER PLAY OUTAGE

The Rangers went 0-for-3 with the man advantage on Tuesday night, taking their season power play total to a woeful 0-for-11. While Halak was exceptional between the pipes for the visitors, finishing with 40 saves, Vigneault cited that the Rangers did not take advantage of clear-cut chances.

"We had numerous Grade-A opportunities, but couldn't score," Vigneault said.

The absence of Boyle has magnified the Rangers' depth issues and power play struggles. It's going to be difficult for the Rangers to find consistent success on the man advantage without Boyle, the man who was brought in to inject creativity and cohesiveness to the Blueshirts' ordinary extra-man unit.

Follow Sean on Twitter at @HartnettHockey

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