How the Blueshirts have gotten better since the All-Star break

The New York Rangers have come out of the All-Star break with a 5-2 record and have made the playoffs relevant again.  Some impressive numbers show why.

Going into the All-Star break the New York Rangers played a crucial series of games including three against the New York Islanders. They lost three of five and any thoughts of a playoff run were mere fantasy.

That all changed after the break.  Aside from a desultory effort against Buffalo, the Rangers have played exceedingly well since the break and if they can keep this up, they will indeed be in a position for a playoff run.  They are 5-2 in their last seven games and hope to tie their longest winning streak of the season if they can best the Wild tonight in Minnesota for three in a row.

While this spurt has coincided with the arrival of Igor Shesterkin and the scoring of Chris Kreider, it has been a total team effort. Here’s where they have improved.

Offense vs defense

The Rangers have had a solid offense all season and it has continued to fire on all cylinders.  Since the break they have been scoring at a 3.28 goals per game clip comparable to their number all season (3.29).    It’s on defense where they are making a difference.  Before the break they were allowing 3.27 goals per game.  In their last seven games they have allowed only 15 goals, a  2.14 goals per game clip.

On offense,  team finally seems to have listened to  David Quinn’s pleas to shoot more.  Up to the break they were averaging 30.2 shots per game. Since the break they are averaging 36 shots per game with a shooting percentage of 9.1%.

Before the break, they were outshot in 33 of their first 48 games.  Since the break, they have outshot the opposition in five of seven games, winning three times.  Ironically, the team is 7-11-1 when they outshoot the competition and 20-12-3 this season when they are outshot.   Go figure.

They are still allowing a lot of shots, including over 40 in their last two contests, but since the break they are allowing 32 shots per game, compared to the 34.1 shots they were allowing up to that point.

It’s important to note that while the Rangers have a shooting percentage of 10.6% this season, it’s higher than the league average of 9.5%.    Since the break, they have allowed the opposition to score at a 6.1% rate. So, despite giving up a lot of shots, the opposition doesn’t score as much. Thank you, Ranger goalies.

Special teams

The power play over the last seven games has been red hot.  In seven games the Rangers have gone 7-14, a 50% success rate.  Before the break they were successful 21.6% of the time.

Similarly, the penalty kill has been tremendous, stopping 12 of 15 power plays.  That’s an 80% success rate, up from their 76% number prior to the break.

Another significant factor is that the Rangers are staying out of the penalty box.  While they are still the NHL leaders averaging 11.43 penalty minutes per game, since the break they have dropped that number to 6.43 minutes per contest in the last seven games.

Faceoffs

This is a good one.  Before the break the Rangers were winning faceoffs at a 46% clip.  That was the worst percentage in the NHL.  Since the break they have won 159 of 322 faceoffs, a 49.4% winning percentage.  While not anywhere near the best in the NHL, that improvement is substantial and is indicative of the team’s focus.

Looking ahead

The most impressive figure out of all of these numbers is the goals against.   While Igor Shesterkin can probably get most of the credit due to his stellar work in goal, the good news is there is no reason to believe that it won’t continue.

Every player has acknowledged that having him in net gives them confidence and the belief that even if they make a mistake, he will be there to back them up. It’s a good story to tell and as ever, the question is whether the team and Shesterkin can continue to play at this level.  If they can, the playoff dream is very real and Jeff Gorton has some tough decisions he will need to make in just nine days.