If there’s one skater who deserves the Stanley Cup Playoff spotlight, it’s New York Rangers (power) forward Rick Nash.
By Nick Adams
Or maybe he isn’t. Maybe we just can’t grasp the intricately patterned, highly nuanced philosophical approach he applies to being a professional hockey forward. Maybe he’s from K-PAX and is beyond all of us. Or maybe he’s in the CIA and just knows how to hide exceptionally well in plain sight. Or maybe he’s just misunderstood. Who knows?
What isn’t misunderstood is the fact that he’s just posted his worst season as an NHL-er. Nearly seven months ago (9/30/15), I wrote a piece here about how if the New York Rangers were going to be dominant in the Eastern Conference again, a major component to that success would be a necessarily strong season from Nash. I used terms like “offensive engine,” “dynamic energy,” and even tossed in “a few lucky breaks” for good measure. I was, in a word, optimistic.
There were three main things #61 needed to do this season that could to neutralize an essentially negative perception of his time as a Ranger: put in 100% effort for as much of 100% of the time as possible (his injury did not help there); sustain his performance gains with a second straight season of improved production (as he had in 2007-09), and; finally have a strong playoffs. None of that is unreasonable to expect from a guy with his capabilities and experience level.
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What we got from Nash this season was abominable. He posted 15G and 21A over 60GP. Four of those goals cam on two nights early in the season and one of them never even went into the net. Take those two games out of the equation and he potted 11G/58GP (.19GPG).
He can still turn in a top-notch performance in the playoffs and salvage something of this year, but if his past is used as an indicator, the odds of that happening are not good . Here are a couple of highlights from The Rick Nash show this year:
Nearly a month into the season, Rick Nash managed to obtain his 700th career point. It was basically magic. The puck didn’t go through the crease, never touched the net – hell, it didn’t even wind up in the trapezoid behind the net (reference: “a few luck breaks.”)
Having not yet scored a goal in the then-young 2015-16 season, Nash took it upon himself (with the Rangers struggling not-at-all to maintain a late 2-goal lead against a non-playoff team) to surge bravely, minotaur-like, over the blue line. Exposing himself to a life-threatening (to a housefly) hook from Arizona’s Mikkel Boedker, the Nasher recorded his first goal of the season. What a cagey play…
A month-ish later, he had a highlight night for any goal scorer. He recorded a hat trick against the Florida Panthers. He did score the OT winner, but between that and the magical empty-netter, you’re talking about a quarter of the guy’s goals on the year.
And then… well, that’s about it. I won’t show you the brutal attack that the fiberglass in Raleigh subjected him to. That might be too much for some folks. It put him out of action for 18 games with what was termed a “deep bone bruise.”
Apparently, those were the 18 games wherein he was going to score the remaining 25 goals that would have made him a 40 goal scorer this year. That’s too bad.
Go ahead. Call me a “hater.” Tell me I don’t know what I’m talking about. Tell me all about how great a two-way player he is and how good he is on the penalty kill. Feel free to spit his career +/- rating at me as evidence of all of this. Then tell me how he’s going to “wake up” and rise from the ashes of the worst season of his career, in phoenix-esque fashion to lead the Rangers on an historic run through the Stanley Cup Playoffs, proving me and all the rest of his critics wrong and proving YOU right. Be my guest.
On planet earth, populated by humans, NOT curiously talkative manifestations of your favorite Dungeons and Dragons creatures, rational people look at things like the fact that Nash has played 56 playoff games as a Ranger and has managed to amass a whopping 9 goals and 20 assists. The abacus tells me that amounts to 29 total playoff points. That’s under half a point-per-game and a paltry .16GPG average.
The only thing less inspiring about Nash’s on-ice performance is his almost complete lack of it anywhere else. Think about it: how many interviews have you ever seen him do? How many times is he quoted in the local sporting press that we read? Go ahead. Do a Google search for “Rick Nash Interviews,” I’ll wait… Yeah, the top three hits come back with date/time stamps from three separate YEARS. He’s a unicorn. He’s the Nashicorn!
As much as I hate to kick this hornet’s nest, there’s another guy with those kinds of numbers who plays a great two-way game, is always defensively responsible, is probably one of the best penalty-killers in the league and would’ve cost about half as much as Rick Nash: Carl “the Jitterbug” Hagelin.
No kidding. Minus out Hagelin’s rookie season and he had the same 56 games. Hags posted 12G/11A/23PTS. And he wasn’t a complete dud. He was fun to watch, media friendly and accessible to fans.
I’m sure Rick Nash is a very nice guy and a total professional. When he is on camera, he articulates himself with aplomb, he presents well and doesn’t come across as either taciturn or cocky. He just doesn’t do it that often and in this market, players have to have something for fans to grab onto or they get turned into chum for snarky, smart ass bloggers.
Bad news, Nash fans: Unicorns don’t exist, but duds do. Rick Nash is one of them. I dare him to prove me wrong.