For the last few weeks again, it has been hard to remember Marty St. Louis is part of the Rangers. That’s how invisible he has been on the ice.
And for the last 6:35 of the second period of Sunday’s 3-2 overtime defeat, St. Louis was literally invisible on the Garden ice, nailed to the bench with linemates Rick Nash and Derek Stepan as exasperated Blueshirts coach Alain Vigneault cut down to six forwards for the final 5:29.
Yes, Nash, tied for the NHL lead with 33 goals, sat. So did Stepan, more likely than not weakened by the flu that sidelined him during Saturday’s 3-2 defeat in Nashville. And so did St. Louis, who has gone 12 straight without a goal and has scored only four times over the last 26 games.
“I went with the six that I thought were playing [well],” said Vigneault, who for the most part returned to a four-line rotation in the third period. “Rick [Nash] hasn’t had many games this year where he’s been off. Sometimes it happens.
“At that time, we had no puck possession. We were spending almost the total time in our own end. I just went with the six forwards and five defensemen I felt were playing.”
A couple of thoughts: 1) Vigneault isn’t typically a benching kind of coach, so this was about as loud a statement as he could have made through the first two periods, during which his team was passive, uninspired and sloppy all over the ice; and 2) If only it were true of St. Louis, as it is true of Nash, that this one was the exception rather than the rule.
There are times it appears as if St. Louis is still making the adjustment from the Lightning to the Rangers, even if we’re coming up on the one-year anniversary of the trade that brought No. 26 from Tampa Bay to Broadway; times it seems as if he is still making the adjustment from being his club’s senior leader to one of his new team’s seniors.
With St. Louis, it’s never from a lack of caring or effort. He cares, deeply. But it’s not translating into production and it’s not translating into performance, either. And as the games become more difficult and space becomes more precious over the final two months, performance and production are required.
You know the third line has been an issue for the Rangers all season, and it’s the third line general manager Glen Sather will most likely attempt to address as the March 2 trade deadline looms. But let’s be serious here: The lack of production from top-six right wings St. Louis and Mats Zuccarello has become a much more serious matter.
Oh-for-12 and 4-for-27 for St. Louis.
One-for-14 and 2-for-24 for Zuccarello.
Hey, it’s like the middle of the Yankees order last summer with Mark Teixeira and Brian McCann.
The Rangers are living through the trauma of losing Henrik Lundqvist for an extended period of time with the vascular injury the King sustained on Jan. 31, though the team didn’t feel the need to have a meeting to address the elephant that won’t be in the room for another four to six weeks.
It would be a mistake to suggest Cam Talbot cost the Rangers so much as a point this weekend, because he didn’t, but it’s a fact the team is operating without the safety net to which it had become so accustomed over the last decade. It’s a fact the Rangers are going to have to be better and sharper and way more on their toes than they were over the weekend.
A moment’s interlude here to address the Rangers’ culpability, or lack thereof, in allowing Henrik Lundqvist to play Monday’s game against the Panthers, two nights after he’d been struck in the throat by Brad Malone’s shot: I have neither the medical knowledge nor the inclination to cast aspersions.
It’s easy to point fingers from the outside — and ridiculous, if you don’t mind, for doctors who never examined the patient to offer diagnoses from afar — the way those paid-for witnesses do on the stand in all of the “Law & Order” incarnations before being torn apart on cross by Jack McCoy or Jamie Ross — and easy to be aghast in retrospect now that we know.
But Lundqvist had no symptoms on Monday. If he had not played against Florida, chances are good he wouldn’t have had symptoms leading into Wednesday’s game against Boston. So should he have played then? Or should he have sat until … when?
The implication or inference that the Rangers and their medical staff would have risked Lundqvist’s health — really, would risk any player’s health — to get him a February game against the Panthers just doesn’t add up.
It doesn’t add up any more than St. Louis’ production.