New York Rangers: Comparing starting slumps, 2013-14 vs today

A Statistical View

Digging a little deeper into some advanced statistics can help us try to forecast the Rangers’ chances at reversing their fortunes.

Through their first nine games in 2013-14, the Rangers had a Shot Attempts (aka Corsi) For% (CF%) of 49.47%, Scoring Chances For% (SCF%) of 47.97% and a PDO (Shooting % + Save %) of 0.931 (SH% = 3.48%, SV% = 89.66).

Comparing that to this season, the Rangers have a CF% of 47.56%, SCF% of 45.81% and a PDO (Shooting % + Save %) of 0.979 (SH% = 6.50%, SV% = 91.43).

Here is where there might be cause for concern. The team of yesteryear had passable, albeit not good, underlying possession numbers and a hideously low PDO. They were a team primed for positive regression (teams tend to average out at a PDO of 1.000).

This season is a different story, first, their underlying possession numbers are bad. Additionally, while they are unlucky, they are nowhere near as snake-bitten as the 2013-14 team, which bodes ill.

In addition, the statistics seem to back the eye test. The team is trapped in its own end far too often and for too long. They are not prepared to start games and have yet to put forth a full game’s worth of effort.

Next: Why is Nick Holden still playing?

The New York Rangers can look to members of that 2013-14 team like Henrik Lundqvist, Ryan McDonagh, and Mats Zuccarello as guides to turning their season around after a dismal start and making the playoffs. However, they will have to do so soon as the clock winds down on October.

(Statistics courtesy of Natural Stat Trick, Historical scores and records courtesy of Hockey-Reference)