The Rangers have made a concerted commitment to tighten up their team defense in the injury absence of All-Star defenseman Adam Fox.
The Blueshirts have given up eight goals in regulation during their four-game point streak, plus the overtime goals allowed in back-to-back losses to the Avalanche and the Golden Knights over the weekend.
Fox suffered his left-arm injury in the game before this 2-0-2 stretch, a Nov. 29 home loss to the Lightning.
“I think the guys have done a really good job,” Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said after Tuesday’s practice in Tarrytown. “We are competing hard. He’s not an easy guy to replace, as you know.
“I think the guys that have stepped in have done a really good job, just as far as bringing what they bring and not trying to do too much, playing within themselves, defending hard. So we’ll continue to work at it.”
Fox, the 2021 Norris Trophy winner and a 2023 finalist, had been tied for the team scoring lead with Artemi Panarin with 26 points when he was placed on long-term injured reserve last week.
Fox has resumed skating, but he is expected to miss several weeks.
“He plays a lot of minutes for us, first and foremost,” Sullivan said. “He helps us with his transition game, his ability to move the puck, transition the puck and join the offense. He’s active off the offensive blue line, helps us on the power play.
“And he defends hard. He’s hockey strong. He’s not the biggest guy in the world, but he’s hockey strong. He competes hard in puck battles. He wins a lot of puck battles in our end. So he helps us in so many ways and is not an easy guy to replace.”
Braden Schneider has replaced Fox on the top D pairing alongside Vladislav Gavrikov. Sullivan has been employing a five-forward first unit on the power play in Fox’ absence, with winger Panarin manning the blue line, while rookie defenseman Scott Morrow works in on the second unit.
“You cannot replace Foxy, he’s a unique D,” blueliner Matthew Robertson said. “But it’s probably on all of us to step up defensively and try to create more and produce more offense for our team. So I think it’s on us as a whole D corps.
“But defense is not just about us, it’s about all five, so I think we’re trying to be more together and trying to create offense from defense. We’ve played against really good teams and we were right there our last two games, so I think we are moving in the right direction.”
Indeed, Sullivan believes despite the recent OT defeats, his team finally is establishing the identity that eluded them over the first third of the regular season.
“I do. I think we’re playing a game where I think one of the first conversations we’ve had around this whole idea of what type of team we want to be — aka our identity,” he said. “We want to be a team that’s hard to play against. And the reason for that is it’s hard to win if we’re not. So a big part of that is managing the puck, making teams work for their offense, not providing them easy offense opportunities. The best way to do that is to manage the puck … and being committed to defend.
“I think the guys have really bought into it.”
Sam Carrick, who fought Vegas’ Keegan Kolesar in Sunday’s first period, agreed that togetherness on the defensive side must extend to the team’s forward corps.
“For sure, these low-scoring close games, I think we’re building towards an identity here where we want to be a tough team that’s tough to get offense against. And when we do give up some offense, we have two elite goalies that are tough to beat,” Carrick said, referring to Igor Shesterkin and Jonathan Quick. “So that’s kind of our M.O. right now.
“It would have been nice to get those here, but there’s a nice feeling around the room that we can build something special here.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
