New York Rangers: How the KZB line stacks up against the league’s best

The New York Rangers top line of Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider and Pavel Buchnevich was reunited for the 2017-18 season. How did the trio match up against the league’s top lines?

At the beginning of the 2016-17 season, the New York Rangers assembled a line of Mika Zibanejad at center flanked by Chris Kreider and Pavel Buchnevich. Through the preseason, the line displayed instant chemistry and looked poised to have a breakout year.

Instead, early injuries to Kredier and Buchnevich broke up the line. When they returned to game action they were not reunited. Then Zibanejad was also injured for a significant portion of the season. Notably, Buchnevich was also deployed down the lineup, healthy scratched and sent to Hartford on a few occasions.

The start of this season was a familiar story. The trio was reunited both as the top line and on the first power play unit. Again, the line would go stretches without playing with each other as Zibanejad missed time due to a concussion and Kreider lost a quarter of the season due to a blood clot.

When the three were together though, they provided glimpses as to why they are so successful together. It was also a tantalizing view of what could be, if they had a full season to play together.

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Deployment and usage

Although the “KZB line” is referred to as the Rangers’ top line, this was rarely the case.

Taking a look at how often the trio was deployed together and how much time they played proves this. Per HockeyViz, the line only played the most 5-on-5 minutes together for six of the teams’ 82 games. The line played second most minutes nine times, third most minutes eight times and fourth most minutes among line combos once.

Looking at this another way, the line spent 259 minutes together 5-on-5, this was good for 55th in the league. Although, the line was also the most consistent Rangers forward line. They also played an additional 102 minutes on the power play together.

For context, the most consistent lines in the NHL played over 500 minutes together, nearly double what the Rangers top line did.

Despite their limited time together, how did they perform?

Line Production

The three forwards were among the Rangers’ most productive skaters last season:

72

27 (1)

20 (T-8)

47 (2)

0.65 (3)

14 (1)

21 (1)

Pavel Buchnevich

74

14 (8)

29 (2)

43 (4)

0.58 (T-6)

5 (2)

17 (T-2)

Chris Kreider

58

16 (T-6)

21 (T-6)

37 (6)

0.64 (4)

7 (5)

12 (T-4)

(Numbers in parenthesis indicate player’s rank for that stat among Rangers skaters)

Overall, they were responsible for 57 of the team’s 225 goals.

However, breaking down their production paints a much less flattering picture.

At 5-on-5, the line was on ice for only eight goals for which was only tied for 96th in the league. 28 other lines had at least 20 goals for. On the power play, the trio fared better, they were on ice for 19 goals (tied for 46th). The top 22 lines on the power play were on ice for at least 30 goals.

However, it is important to note that the lines lack of playing time counted against them for the metrics above. When normalized per 60 minutes of ice time, the line is more favorable compared to their peers.

At 5-on-5, the line produced 1.85 Goals For per 60 (GF/60), good for 72nd (out of 79 lines who played at least 200 minutes together). On the power play, their mark of 11.28 GF/60 clocked in at 26th in the NHL.

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Puck Possession

While not awe-inspiring from a pure production standpoint, it is also important to evaluate if the line was doing the right things to generate offense.

One of the ways to do so is to look at how many shot attempts (shots, missed shots and blocked shots aka “Corsi”) were generated for and against the Rangers when the trio was on ice. Again, we will want to compare them to their peers around the league.

While it’s not readily apparent in the graph above, the Rangers logo in the “Good” quadrant represents the line of Zibanejad, Kreider and Buchnevich.

When together, the line had a Corsi For per 60 minutes TOI (CF/60) of 68.33, good for 15th in the league (out of out of 79 lines who played at least 200 minutes together). They also had a Corsi Against per 60 (CA/60) of 52.58, for a 28/79 rank.

Additionally, the chart indicates that like some of the best lines in the NHL like Claude Giroux-Sean Couturier-Jakub Voracek line of the Phildelphia Flyers, Brayden Schenn-Jaden Schwartz-Vladimir Tarasenko line of the St. Louis Blues and the Jonathan Marchessault-Reilly Smith-William Karlsson line of the Vegas Golden Knights, the Rangers top line was putting the team in the position to succeed.

Looking towards the future

While their production doesn’t reflect their good underlying numbers, it does seem to confirm the eye test that the line plays well together and is a benefit for the team whenever they touch the ice.

There is considerable uncertainty heading into next season, namely the team hiring a new head coach. However, we should expect the line to get a long look together under the new regime, before the season commences.

Even if they are ultimately broken up for 5-on-5 play, it would be reasonable to expect them to still continue to play together on the first power play unit.

Kreider, Zibanejad and Buchnevich probably don’t come to mind when thinking of the best lines in the NHL. However, they are all clearly good and valuable players as evinced by them all playing key roles at the 2018 World Championships for their respective countries: USA (Kreider), Sweden (Zibanejad), and Russia (Buchnevich).

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The line has flashed potential an chemistry for two seasons. Unfortunately, injuries to each and coaching have derailed the line numerous times. With a new coaching staff and a little help from lady luck, Buchnevich, Kreider and Zibanejad can reach new heights together.

(Stats courtesy of NHL.com, Line information and advanced statistics courtesy of NaturalStatTrick.com and Corsica.Hockey)