Power Rankings: Rangers not living up to high expectations

Updated Jan. 21

This wasn't the way it was supposed to be for the New York Rangers, who made the biggest splash of the offseason by signing two high-profile free agents in Scott Gomez and Chris Drury.

Rangers captain Jaromir Jagr has often looked disinterested on the ice. (Getty Images)

The newcomers were expected to enhance a lineup that included star forwards Jaromir Jagr and Brendan Shanahan and goalie Henrik Lundqvist and turn the Rangers into a serious Stanley Cup contender. But as the All-Star break approaches, New York is still struggling to get its pieces working in harmony and looks like a team that may not make the playoffs, let alone win it all.

New York has won only two of its last eight and seven of its last 23. As a result, the Rangers are bringing up the rear in the Atlantic Division that has a great race going at the top between Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and New Jersey.

New York has scored fewer goals per game than anyone in the league, the power play has been ineffective and defensively, the team has been victimized by repeated mistakes at inopportune times. It hasn't helped that Lundqvist, who kept the team afloat for the first two months with some brilliant work, has been only ordinary at best since then.

For his part, Gomez has recovered from a slow start to become an All-Star, but Drury, with a minus-14 rating, seems overwhelmed by the bright lights of the Big Apple. Meanwhile, captain Jagr has often looked disinterested, setting a tone that seems to filter down to the rest of the troops. And opponents appear to be noticing.

"The gameplan's got be simple -- sit back, protect your net, protect your end and wait for the Rangers to make mistakes," Shanahan said. "We're beating ourselves and we have to fix it ourselves."

But time is running out.

Here are this week's rankings:

RANK	TEAM		MOVE (LW)