Rangers’ biggest flaw could change their Stanley Cup contenders status

They are playing at NHL .500 over the last 10 weeks while having won fewer than half of their games (9-9-1) since Dec. 5. Do you consider that an extended blip or was the anomaly the Rangers’ 18-4-1 burst out of the gate?

All sorts of issues have cropped up since the first week of December. The club has had a serious problem preventing and defending against odd-man rushes, though it was much better over the weekend in the split against the Caps. Defensive-zone coverage has been spotty.

Creating sustained pressure in the offensive zone off a persistent forecheck has been an issue. Getting goals from the bottom-six — well, really from three of the four lines that don’t have Artemi Panarin, Vincent Trocheck and Alexis Lafreniere — has been an issue.

That last one fits under the umbrella of the Blueshirts’ difficulty at five-on-five, where an average of 48 of the 60 minutes a night are played. “Difficulty” is likely a significant understatement.

Entering Tuesday’s Garden match against a Seattle team whose nine-game winning streak was snapped by the Penguins in Pittsburgh on Monday, the Rangers ranked 22nd in the league in goals for percentage at 48.45 percent while scoring 85 and yielding 89 at full and equal strength. They are 17th in goals scored per 60:00 and 21st in goals allowed per 60:00 at 2.64.

These numbers align with bubble teams scraping to get into the playoffs, not with one that has Stanley Cup aspirations. The Rangers have been carried by their special teams, which by nature can be fickle at different stages throughout a season.

This is one of those times, the Blueshirts having gone 0-for-8 on the power play over their last two games and 2-for-16 over the last five while facing mounting penalty-kill pressure on entries and points of decision.

The power play has been held off the board in five of the last nine games after getting a PPG in eight straight and 11 of 12 before the spigot ran dry. After leading the league for weeks at a clip over 30 percent, the Blueshirts have slipped to second behind Tampa Bay in PP efficiency at 28.2 percent.

That is obviously quite good, but it is not good enough for a team so reliant on power-play production. The balance is unhealthy. Left untreated, it could prove a fatal malady. It is neither fair nor realistic to demand that the club scores at up to a 35 percent clip with the man-advantage either in the regular season or the playoffs.

So, the focus the rest of the way must be on improving at five-on-five. That falls on general manager Chris Drury as he plots his course to the March 8 deadline. That falls on head coach Peter Laviolette and his staff. But that surely also falls on the playing personnel.

The bottom-six, as I wrote following Sunday’s 2-1 victory over the Caps, has become a black hole of production, accounting for three goals scored — two by Jimmy Vesey, one by Will Cuylle — over the last 14 games. Barclay Goodrow, Nick Bonino, Jonny Brodzinski and Blake Wheeler are mired in lengthy droughts.

Since Filip Chytil went down on Nov. 2 in the season’s 10th game, the Rangers have essentially been operating with two fourth lines centered by Goodrow and Bonino. The bottom-six’s lack of production should not be a shock to anyone.

But would it shock you to learn that Mika Zibanejad had scored a five-on-five goal in only four games for a total of five goals at five-on-five through the club’s first 42 matches and his 41?

Would it surprise you to hear that while Chris Kreider has scored eight goals at five-on-five, No. 20 has notched only two in the last 14 games and three in the last 20?

So perhaps the brunt of the blame for the club’s failures at five-on-five shouldn’t be heaped onto a compromised bottom-six but instead onto the putative top line whose production is not commensurate with its billing even now as the second unit.

Kreider rarely makes an impact unless he is scoring. His game has been condensed to the net-front, where he may be better than anyone else, but not that good so the rest of the 200 x 85 becomes an afterthought.

The. Rangers. Need. More. From. Chris.

Much. More.

They need more production from Zibanejad as well, but No. 93 does make a sizeable impact with his work on the defensive side of the puck through all three zones, often times relied upon to do the job for his linemates, as well.

The Rangers are a top-heavy team but they are not a heavy team. Indeed, there is marked absence of physicality throughout the lineup. Opponents rarely pay a price. They allow too many goals from around the net while scoring too few in the dirty areas themselves.

All of this is reflected by the five-on-five totals that portray the Rangers as a middle-of-the-road team, not a contender. Beginning with Tuesday, the club had 40 games in which to reassert itself. Beginning with Tuesday, Drury had 20 games until the deadline.