Thirteen games into last season, the Rangers were in a bit of a state of disarray. They were 7-3-3, all right, but the record was sandcastle-type stuff, built almost entirely on Igor Shesterkin’s otherworldly work in net.
Indeed, the Blueshirts’ 13th game of 2021-22 was a 4-3 victory over the Panthers at the Garden on Nov. 8, 2021, in which many of the early season warts had been revealed. Shesterkin was under siege, his team was outshot 45-18 overall and 17-3 in the third period. In addition, the Puddy Tats bumped and crashed into the netminder with impunity and without any meaningful response.
“It isn’t like we didn’t face any adversity last year,” Mika Zibanejad told The Post on Monday. “I think we were worse at this time.”
Serendipitously, though, the Blueshirts had a three-day break following that Florida game that allowed coach Gerald Gallant to put his players through remedial work in an abbreviated Training Camp II. When they emerged from the lab, they were a harder, more disciplined team, had switched up their defensive-zone system, and went on a 10-1 run to essentially lock up a playoff spot by the first week of December.
It was a reset. A necessary reset.
This year, after their disturbing 3-2 overtime loss to the Red Wings on Sunday left the Rangers 6-4-3, but 3-3-3 in the last nine, and put their leaders on the wrong end of a stunning (for him) public rebuke from the coach, there was no such propitious break in the action.
Instead, the Rangers got the ravenous Islanders at the Garden on Tuesday and then will go on the road to Nashville and Detroit, on Thursday and Saturday. The Rangers will have to create an identity on the fly.
“We’re still trying to figure out who we are,” K’Andre Miller told The Post. “We’ve lost some personnel from last year’s team. It’s going to take time.
“We have new guys and guys who are in different positions of responsibility. We need to clean up our game. I certainly don’t detect any panic. We’re looking to get to our game.”
It has been said many times that the Rangers would play this season under expectations created by the run to the conference finals last season. But that charge featured top-sixers Ryan Strome, Frank Vatrano and Andrew Copp and third-pair defenseman Justin Braun. They’re all gone.
Not that you should cry for them, but this group of players is being measured against that one. That shouldn’t have snuck up on anyone. But it kind of hangs over the Rangers, who entered the season as the hunted rather than the hunters — and without a Stanley Cup to warrant being a target.
“It’s definitely a different situation,” Zibanejad said. “There were not a whole lot of expectations last year. Maybe teams overlooked us. But this year, every team in the league looks at us a little differently.
“There’s pressure but that shouldn’t be a negative. I’m confident we can handle this. It’s not like we don’t play well — the first period against Detroit was great — but we have to do it on a more consistent basis.
“We kept building last year. That’s where we are now. That’s what we have to do, I think everyone is expecting a little more of themselves.”
Copp, Vatrano and Braun arrived around the trade deadline last season when general manager Chris Drury had an abundant amount of cap space. At this juncture, the Rangers — still carrying the max 23-man roster — project to have approximately $765,500 with which to work at the deadline, according to CapFriendly.
In other words, there is no point anticipating reinforcements. The cavalry is already here.
That, of course, prominently features Zibanejad, who leads the team with seven goals and is on a pace that equates to a sweet 43-goal season. Six of the tallies had come on the power play, including the sweet-spot one-timer he wired home on Sunday. One was scored while skating shorthanded.
That means none had come at five-on-five in 173:39 of ice time.
Zibanejad almost burst out in laughter when, a few minutes into our conversation on Tuesday, I asked him whether that weighs on him.
“It’s not funny, but I knew you were going to ask that,” he said. “I have been waiting for that question.
“Obviously I want to score. I think I’ve been in position and have had enough good chances that I should have one by now. But it would be much worse if I had no goals, at all.
“You go through stretches, but one of the things I learned during the playoffs is that you can’t get hung up on things,” said the 29-year-old Swede, who is tied for the PPG league lead with Connor McDavid. “I’m working hard, I’m looking to create more offense but it’s not only about five-on-five.
“When they’re setting me up on the power play, I’m going to keep shooting.”
That’s a formula that has worked. The Rangers — this year’s Rangers — must find a formula that works for them.