Blue Line Station
Fansided

New York Rangers: How do analytics stack up against league’s best?

By Nicholas Zararis

NEW YORK, NY - FEBRUARY 15: Ryan Sproul #25 of the New York Rangers warms up for his first NHL game against the New York Islanders at Barclays Center on February 15, 2018 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - FEBRUARY 15: Ryan Sproul #25 of the New York Rangers warms up for his first NHL game against the New York Islanders at Barclays Center on February 15, 2018 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
2 of 5
Next
NEW YORK, NY – MARCH 24: Chris Kreider #20 of the New York Rangers celebrates after scoring a goal in the first period against the Buffalo Sabres during their game at Madison Square Garden on March 24, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY – MARCH 24: Chris Kreider #20 of the New York Rangers celebrates after scoring a goal in the first period against the Buffalo Sabres during their game at Madison Square Garden on March 24, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images) /

The New York Rangers

Starting with the New York Rangers Corsi percentage it is pretty obvious why they struggled last season. The team’s CF% last season was a league worst 45.92%, nearly a two whole percent lower than the next closest team, the Minnesota Wild. This means that the Rangers only generated 45.92% of the shots at even strength during games last season.  A team that has less than half of the shots in a game is at a tremendous disadvantage. If a team is not creating scoring chances, they are not scoring goals.

Next up is PDO, a stat which adds together a team’s shooting percentage and the goaltender’s save percentage. In the analytics community, PDO is considered a measure of a team’s puck luck. Think of it like this, if a team is extremely snake bitten in the offensive zone, it would seem as if they were having a string of bad luck. In a similar way, if a team’s goaltender is gets beat on a redirection or rebound it is unlucky and it would lower his save percentage and therefore lower the team’s PDO. The Rangers were 14th in PDO this past season, with a .998 PDO. Typically, if a team finishes below 1.0 in PDO they are considered unlucky.

Lastly, in regards to high danger scoring chances, the Rangers finished right in the middle of the pack at 15 with a 49.31. Meaning that the Rangers made up for some of their weaknesses in general shots on goal at even strength by creating higher quality chances. Generating a higher percentage of high danger goals buoyed the team’s overall offensive struggles and in part kept them from being a true top of the lottery contender.

Home/Analysis