Ah, the New York Rangers. A favorite punching bag. A team that still generates so much noise and whose lack of royal clothing is always revealed in the spring. Not after a series of articles claiming they saved hockey or that they brought New York together and simultaneously fired Eric Adams as mayor (although if they want to do that, that’s cool). And those of us who look under the hood always end up screaming in Robert De Niro’s The Untouchables voice, “They’re nothing but a goalie and a badge!”
But here they are, three weeks into the fledgling NHL season atop the Metropolitan Division. They’re scoring goals, they’re racking up wins, and they once again have the faithful in the blue seats puffing out their chests and tossing their Adam Graves jerseys over their heads (does the new MSG still have a section blue seats)? Who cares?). So, is it more real than previous seasons? Or is this the same flawed model under Peter Laviolette as under Gerrard Gallant, who simply relied on Vezina-level performances from Igor Shesterkin and Chris Kreider to never miss a power play? Let’s do the dirty work.
Is Kreider scoring an abnormal number of power play goals again?
You bet! Krieder has six goals in nine games, including four on the power play, and scored on literally half of the shots he took with the power play. This won’t last.
To be fair to him, he’s taking a few more power play shots than in previous years, although they’re not necessarily better (xG is down), and none of this indicates he’ll continue , you know, to bury. half of his shots on the power play. Even Alex Ovechkin finds this ridiculous.
Overall, the Rangers have benefited from a touch scoring more goals at 5-on-3 than anyone else in the league (3, but only in two wins) and ranking second in power play goals in the league behind the Devils (who only score so many power play goals because they are absolutely awesome and not an imperfect team that can’t score otherwise, obviously).
Overall, the Rangers score on nearly a quarter of their power play shots as a team, which will eventually fall. It doesn’t need to drop that much — the Oilers scored on nearly 20 percent of their power play shots last season. But the Oilers have Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, not Mika Zibanejad, and his gorgeous hair.
So this must mean Rangers are a poor even strength team again?
Not necessarily! I know, I don’t like it either, but that’s the problem. Laviolette’s teams are known for being fast and better at even strength than Gallant’s charges, waiting until it was time for Jacob Trouba to try and mauling someone when that wasn’t working.
The Rangers are middle of the pack when it comes to Corsi’s goal share and expected share, both above 50 percent. This is actually due to being one of the best defensive teams in the league and not being a dynamic offensive team, but hey, whichever way you get at it. The Rags rank 7th in attempts against tied and 6th in expected goals per 60. Those are both improvements from last season.
That’s not usually what fans think of when it comes to a Laviolette team. He is particularly known for the fast pace of his defenders and loves to get aggressive in the offensive zone. But it’s clearly decided that K’Andre Miller and Trouba are a shutdown duo, with Adam Fox and Ryan Lindgren to stand up and go. It’s working so far, as Miller has the lowest xGA of his career so far.
OK, but Shesterkin is probably still the reason this whole thing works…
Actually no. Shesterkin has been pretty mediocre early in the season, with just a .902 save percentage so far and just 1.7 goals saved above expectations.
Somehow Jonathan Quick – who you’d think had retired or just gone off to sea – has been wonderful in two starts, conceding one goal in two starts and repelling the other 47 shots. You want things that aren’t sustainable, that’s it.
So what is really happening?
The schedule definitely helped. The Rangers have had a shift west that has landed them looks at Seattle, Calgary and Edmonton, all of whom are very temperamental at the moment. Add in a home date with the Coyotes, and a couple of overtime wins against the Jets and Canucks, who are playing better than they possibly will be, and you get what we have here.
So no, the Rangers aren’t going anywhere if Shesterkin doesn’t become SHESTERKIN again very soon. Their power play numbers will deflate. There’s more grounding with their even-strength play than there has been, but not enough to declare them three-dimensional.
But we’ve seen them play with Shesterkin and their power quite a long time before.
Follow Sam on Twitter @Felsgate and on Bluesky @felsgate.bsky.social
