The New York Rangers 2018-19 season is over and it’s time to take a look at some of the team’s statistics.
The old adage is that numbers don’t lie. The New York Rangers were not a very good team this season and their statistics support that. There are a few surprises, but the numbers make it very clear where the team needs to improve.
Personnel
The Rangers average age this season was 27.3 years. That made the Rangers the 12th youngest team in the league and slightly younger than the league average of 27.8 years. It’s important to note that the roster that finished the season averaged 25 years of age and would have qualified as the youngest team in the league. Take out Henrik Lundqvist‘s 36 years and the average age was 24.5.
34 different players suited up for the Blueshirts this season, nowhere near the 49 different players who played for Ottawa or the 48 who played for Anaheim. San Jose used the fewest different players this season, only 28.
The Rangers only used two goaltenders, Henrik Lundqvist and Alexandar Georgiev. They were one of ten teams that used only two goalies. Compare that to the Philadelphia Flyers who tied an NHL record by using eight different netminders.
While it seemed like the Rangers at times fielded a team of rookies, they were not the team that used the most. Ten rookies played for the Rangers this season, while Ottawa took the lead with 17 rookies.
Season record
We all know that the Rangers finished 32-36-14. The Rangers went to overtime 23 times, the most in the Metropolitan Division. That was almost twice the number of overtime games of Ottawa and Calgary who went to extra time only 12 times.
Florida, Chicago and Vancouver led the league by going to OT 24 times.
The Blueshirts had an overtime record of 3-9 and a shootout record of 6-5. In 12 of those 14 overtime or shootout losses, the Rangers were outshot.
As far as shootouts, the six wins was tied for the league lead. Their 11 shootouts were second to Vancouver’s 12. The Rangers scored 16 times in the shootout, most in the NHL and four more than second place Buffalo. Conversely, they allowed 13 goals in the shootout, second most in the league.
Resilience
For the Rangers, like most teams, scoring first was important. The only problem was the Rangers didn’t do it enough. While their record of 10-5-4 when leading after the first period may seem good, their winning percentage of .526 was the third worst in the league.
The Rangers have a tradition of not losing when leading after two periods. Since the 2010-11 season, the Rangers have gone into the third period with a lead 246 times and only lost seven of those games in regulation. This season the team went into the third leading 18 times and never lost in regulation. Unfortunately, they went into the third period with a lead fewer times than any other team. They also lost five of those games in overtime or a shootout so their winning percentage of .722 was worst in the league.
While they did a decent job of holding leads, the Rangers were not good at comebacks. The fell behind after the first period in 27 games and went on to win only four times. They went into the third period trailing in almost half of their games. 37 times they were trailing after two periods and they came back to win six times.
One amazing stat
At the end of the season we heard a lot about the number of one goal games the Rangers were in. According to the official NHL statistics, the Rangers played 42 one-goal games and finished with a record of 18-10-14. That ‘s a lot, but those numbers are not the real ones.
If you take out empty net goals that inflated the scores, the Rangers actually played 52 one-goal games. That’s 63% of their games that were really decided by one goal, games that in most instances, were matches that they could have won.
The encouraging statistic is that they had a record of 24-14-14 in those one goal games. A pessimist would say that they lost 28 of 52 one goal games. An optimist would say that they won almost half and were able to get at least a point in 38 out of 52 one-goal games.
That record in one-goal games makes the next statistic we look at, the scoring by this team, an important one for the 2019-20 New York Rangers. Increase the scoring and the number of closer games increases as well and this Ranger team showed that they can win those games.