Every fanbase has its own version of a whipping boy, someone who, for whatever reason, isnt reaching the standards set by those who cheer him on. Most of the time the criticism that player receives is hardly justified, but its not remotely surprising, considering the irrational place its coming from in the first place. When things arent going the way you drew it up in your head, its human nature to find a scapegoat, forgetting that hockey is a team sport involving 19 players in uniforms. The direction in which this goes is fascinating; sometimes its the teams best player. Sometimes its a supremely gifted star that isnt perceived to be producing enough, and sometimes, its a European player caught in the cro sfire. On occasion, each of these converge into the perfect storm ( ). MORE: For the fans of the New York Rangers, the player with that honor , who despite his squad being just one win from the second round, has been a topic of discu sion due to the goose egg next to his name in the goals scored category. As were seeing in the other Metropolitan Division matchup, that can Joe Jacques Jersey prove to be . This guy gets paid a lot of money, were used to seeing him score a lot of goals in the regular season, so why isnt he scoring now? These things happen. where they cant buy a lucky bounce off of a defenseman and into the net, instead hitting iron or narrowly mi sing a yawning cage. Its just that in the playoffs, you may only get those few games before youre relegated to the golf course, and every single little thing is magnified to the umpteenth degree. That's why its hard not to feel for Nash, who has had a rough go of it during his limited playoff exposure. In 21 career playoff games, Nash has scored just twice; but its not for a lack of trying. According to Hockey Reference, there are only 19 forwards who have registered more shots in their cumulative postseason careers without scoring more than 5 goals. What youll quickly notice is that a vast majority of the guys on this list range were/are bottom-six forwards who likely werent relied upon to put the puck in the net in the first place. Nash, on the other end, has led the Rangers in goals in both of his seasons in New York, and scored six more than the next closest guy this past year despite mi sing 17 games with an early season concu sion. Speaking more specifically to this particular postseason, Nash has 23 shots, which ties him for fourth most by any individual player thus far. Every other player (and there are 14 of them) who has topped 20 shots on goal, has scored at least once. Luckily for him theres other, more subtle ways to contribute than lighting the lamp. The trio of Nash-Derek Stepan-Martin St.Louis have feasted on whatever the Flyers have thrown their way. Its Nash, though, who has the best underlying numbers of the bunch. The Rangers have controlled 57 percent of the shot attempts whenever he has been on the ice at 5v5, and he has put his team on the power play three times (without taking any penalties of his own on the other end). He also has factored into 4 different scoring plays by drawing a sists. Prior to the series with the Flyers at even strength, and the play of their top unit has been a big reason thats come to fruition. Just because Nash hasnt scored doesnt mean he hasnt been a key contributor to his teams 3-2 series lead. It also doesnt mean that theres something inherently wrong with him that prevents him from translating his goal-scoring touch from the regular season to the postseason. Luckily for him, theres ample reason to believe that . Maybe thatll afford him enough time to turn his fortunates around. Dimitri Filipovic is a Sporting News contributor. Follow him on Twitter: . David Ortiz Jersey