Early on this season, the New York Rangers have struggled to score goals even though the team is creating scoring chances.
Whenever a team experiences change at any level, it can be a shock to the senses. If a group of players was accustomed to doing something a certain way for years, it becomes difficult to unlearn muscle memory. Think about how many times a defenseman goes into a corner during the course of a game. Now multiply that over five or six seasons span and the number is exponential.
The New York Rangers transitioning into a more transition-based game has yielded a mixed bag of results. While the team is creating a track meet style of play and creating more scoring chances, it is also surrendering more of them. In addition to the track meet, the change is putting pressure on the players to make more snap decisions.
While the game of hockey has always been speed based, the level in today’s game is absurd. Players who were above average skaters as recently as five years ago look pedestrian by today’s standards. Think about how effective Marc Staal was during the 2013 lockout season in relation to how poorly he plays now.
As well as the physical speed, the mental speed is imperative. Being that the team wants to get the puck going the other direction as soon as possible, a player has to have the quick twitch to move things along.
The issue comes in when a player misreads or has a misplay. If a defenseman pinches too early, the rest of the team is out of position. If a forward misses a clearance, their team is stuck in their own end of the ice.
A lot of the Rangers’ issues in transition this season can be chalked up to over-complicating things. Even though the team is creating lots of scoring chances, their shooting percentage is a rough 7.63 percent, nearly two and a half percent below the league average. In part, this is due to a bad habit of overpassing in the offensive zone in search of the perfect shot.
If the team can just keep it simple, the goals will come. In fact, according to the law of averages, the Rangers should have a positive regression to the mean in terms of shooting percentage. Since the league average is around ten percent, that means eventually, New York’s should get to around that level and positively improve.
In addition to the offensive zone stuff, the team’s defensemen have a bad habit of passing to no one when trying to execute an exit. While I understand the whole idea of the transition game is to move before the other team can get set up in the neutral zone, unforced turnovers hurt the flow of the game.
If the team gives away the puck in hopes of trying to break out, it’s going to get pinned in its own zone. The Rangers need to make the most of every single time it controls the puck, and mindlessly giving it away makes no sense.
Even head coach David Quinn knows the team has an issue.
"“Shoot the damn thing!” David Quinn bellowed. “It’s not a beauty contest! Get the puck to the net!”"
Getting the most out of this group will require a balancing act from the coaching staff. If the group is too hard on pushing this new mindset, it could alienate the veterans who have been in the league for a long time.
The Rangers need to score more goals, regardless of whether or not it is a good team. New York has plenty of talent and averaging 2.3 goals per game is outright unacceptable.