New York Rangers: What does history say about Lindy Ruff as a coach?

As the New York Rangers’ organization embarks on an offseason of change, there were calls for a change from Lindy Ruff as the defensive assistant. What does the team’s track record under Ruff show in terms of results?

Whenever a team goes through a dry spell, it is only natural for people to look for scapegoats. Naturally, since it’s easier to replace an individual coach or executive, they’re an easy target for the angry mob. There’s a reason that the hitting or pitching coach is always the first to go on a struggling baseball team. The New York Rangers with Lindy Ruff have drawn the ire of many.

To be fair, the organization fired legendary alumni Jeff Buekeboom from the defensive assistant job following the team’s disappointing second-round exit against the Ottawa Senators. The Rangers’ defensive struggles against an inferior Senators team was extremely frustrating and something that needed to be addressed.

In an attempt to salvage the deteriorating core of the team that made the Stanley Cup final back in 2014, the front office brought in an established and proven coach to take over the defense. The Dallas Stars just missed the postseason for the second straight year and fire their then head coach Lindy Ruff.

This idea raised some eyebrows at the time because of the retread nature of the hire. However, once a coach proves themselves for long enough, organizations will continue to give them chances based on their track record. At face value, the move made sense, the Rangers were a veteran team that expected to be a contender.

While it’s certainly not entirely Ruff’s fault that the Rangers fell off a cliff since his arrival in New York, there is evidence to suggest some correlation. Using expected goals for, a statistic which measures how many goals a team was expected to score based on where the shot came from, we can get an understanding of Ruff’s impact on the team.

In theory, if the Rangers have generated a lower percentage of the expected goals for and conceded a greater number of expected goals against, it would mean that the defense got worse over time.

To be fair to Ruff, the talent he has to work with is part of the equation and will be given some weight.