Scott Gomez: Lost in New York

My first inkling that Scott Gomez wasn't off to the best start with the New York Rangers -- beyond going 2-1-3 in the first seven games -- was when a big-time Blueshirts fan I know IM'ed me after a game last week to inform me that he was "done with Gomez already." I've only seen Gomez play once with the Rangers, but I saw the kind of play that infuriates the blue-seaters at the Garden: Bad decisions, disjointed offense and passive passing where there was furious stick-handling during his days in New Jersey.

His situation isn't helped by what appears to be a lack of on-ice chemistry with Jaromir Jagr, which is something the Rangers' other star free-agent centerman, Chris Drury, also doesn't seem to possess. NY Post columnist Larry Brooks puts the blame on Jagr for the team's muddle in the middle:

In Jagr, the Rangers have a 622-goal scorer who has talked himself into believing, a) he must have the puck on his stick at all times in the offensive zone; and, b) that he needs slow-down linemates in order to be most effective, when just the opposite is more likely to be true.

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As long as Jagr insists on playing the game his way - and obstinacy is a trait shared by every great player extant - then going with Gomez as his pivot is a dicey proposition. So too is reverting back to Drury. So what to do with the 2-4-1 Rangers who have scored two even-strength goals their last six games and pretty much will go as Jagr goes as long as he's here?

Brooks suggests that if neither center can ignite Jagr's offense, the Rangers could look for more extreme solutions: Like elevating Dave Scatchard -- on a tryout contract in the AHL -- to the top line between Marcel Hossa and No. 68, and then creating a second line of Drury and Brendan Shanahan on the wings and Gomez in the middle. And right there you see the biggest difference between Drury and Gomez: One is a complete player who could be an effective winger if the team needed him to be, and the other is a pure center who has to stay in the middle because he doesn't have a nose for the net to play anywhere else.

As Dubi Silverstein explains further over on the Blueshirt Bulletin, Gomez "got the big contract the Rangers awarded him because his playmaking abilities made him a natural replacement for Michael Nylander alongside Jagr, and on into the post-Jagr future." His failure, thus far, as a top-line center could create a domino effect through a team that's in last place in the Atlantic Division and last in the NHL in goals scored. Gomez used to be the guy you put a struggling player next to in order to turn his game around; so who'll be the one to light a fire under Gomez?