From time to time, I’ll be posting articles that I’ve written for other publications here. They aren’t blog entries, per se, but I figured they’d be interesting enough, anyway.

Last Thursday at Madison Square Garden, midway through the third period, with his team leading the rival Islanders, 3-2, Rangers winger Petr Prucha found himself in perfect position to score and give his team a much-needed insurance goal. Instead, after receiving a pass off the boards from center Chris Drury, the young Czech stumbled in the slot and shot the puck wide. Though the Rangers eventually got another goal, winning the game 4-2, the moment encapsulated the season Prucha has been having.

Two seasons ago, Prucha opened eyes as a rookie, scoring 30 goals in his initial NHL campaign. Unluckily for Prucha, his debut coincided with the likes of Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin, Dion Phaneuf and his own teammate, Henrik Lundqvist, among others. Had he entered the league any other year, he would likely have been a front-runner for the Calder Trophy as the league’s rookie of the year.

Prucha didn’t have as stellar a year in his second season, but he certainly didn’t succumb to a sophomore slump. Despite struggling to find chemistry early in the season on a line with Brendan Shanahan and Matt Cullen, Prucha still managed to light the lamp 22 times in 2006-07.

52 goals in two NHL seasons. Not bad for a guy picked in the eighth round of the 2002 NHL Entry Draft. Prucha quickly became a fan favorite at the Garden, drawing chants of “Proo, Proo” whenever he did something noteworthy on the ice, a frequent occurrence. His scoring contributions aside, Prucha always displayed a willingness to battle for the puck against players much larger than his 6-foot, 175-pound frame.

Much has been made this season about the Rangers’ team-wide problems scoring. Like most of his teammates, Prucha has been unable to elude the criticism. Through 25 games, Prucha had scored just two goals and notched five assists, putting him on pace to score only seven times for 23 total points through 2007-08. That’s about half of his average of 43.5 points per season. Suffice it to say, there are a lot less “Proo, Proo” chants at the World’s Most Famous Arena this year.

It’s hard to pinpoint Prucha’s lack of production offensively to one particular factor. Away from the puck, the feisty, baby-faced 25 year old has been as effective as always, never failing to hurl his body after a loose puck into the corner, knowing full well a thundering hit is likely to follow. However, when he gets the puck, he simply hasn’t been able to create offensively, whether getting the puck on net himself, or setting up his teammates.

The biggest reason for Prucha’s disappearance from the score sheet might be his lack of power play time. Thanks to almost immediate chemistry between Prucha and his elder countryman Jaromir Jagr, 16 of his 30 first-year goals came with the man advantage. With the arrival of Shanahan last season, Prucha wasn’t out on the power play as much, but he still recorded eight goals with the opposition down a player. This year, though, “Prooch,” as his teammates call him, has been a rare guest star for a Ranger power play that has, coincidentally or not, been mediocre throughout the first quarter of the season.

Prucha has also seen little stability in terms of linemates. He’s spent time with the likes of Drury, Blair Betts, Brandon Dubinsky, Ryan Callahan, Nigel Dawes and others, with a different combination every few nights. Furthermore, players like Callahan and Dawes, while certainly unique individuals in their own right, play a similar style to Prucha, perhaps limiting what a line featuring any two of the three can do.

At various points last season, when fans thought Prucha was struggling (struggles they’d certainly take over his current performance), there were rumors abound that the Chicago Blackhawks, among other teams, were interested in acquiring him. While some fans dismissed the idea of trading such a popular and exciting young player, other fans and analysts alike suggested that Prucha was not the player his statistics indicated. They claimed that the Rangers would be smart to, as they say in the stock market, “sell high,” with Prucha benefiting from playing with a talent like Jagr and his value as an asset as high as it ever would be.

So far this season, Prucha still elicits warm reactions from Ranger fans, even though his name hasn’t been heard quite as often from the arena announcer. Thanks to an injury to Avery, Prucha should start to see more time on the power play, too. However, if Prucha fails to revert to form as the season progresses, the Rangers might wish they had made a sound investment and traded Prucha while he was still a big commodity on the market.