Blue Line Station
Fansided

Three improvements Rangers must make when hockey resumes

By Brendan Azoff

PHILADELPHIA, PA - FEBRUARY 28: Claude Giroux #28 of the Philadelphia Flyers reacts in front Ryan Lindgren #55, Marc Staal #18, and Alexandar Georgiev #40 of the New York Rangers after scoring a goal in the third period at the Wells Fargo Center on February 28, 2020 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Flyers defeated the Rangers 5-2. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
PHILADELPHIA, PA - FEBRUARY 28: Claude Giroux #28 of the Philadelphia Flyers reacts in front Ryan Lindgren #55, Marc Staal #18, and Alexandar Georgiev #40 of the New York Rangers after scoring a goal in the third period at the Wells Fargo Center on February 28, 2020 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Flyers defeated the Rangers 5-2. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images) /
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Brendan Lemieux #48 of the New York Rangers (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /

Stepping Up on the Penalty Kill

Win the special teams battle, win the game is an old hockey mantra which stands true to this day. If you better your opponent both while up and down one man, your odds of winning the game grow significantly higher. With the seventh-ranked powerplay in the league at 22.9%, the New York Rangers positioned themselves well nightly to win that special teams battle.

In the Rangers case, they merely needed to kill just 78% of their penalties to win the special teams war on a nightly basis, but they managed to kill off just 77.4% of their sin bin transactions instead. The gap between seventh on the power play and 23rd on the penalty kill is astronomical and really held the Rangers back from optimizing their high goal totals on the season.

Now, the penalty kill is a hard thing to correct because you are indeed down a man and the whole premise is that you will give up goals. But there are ways to make changes starting with your personnel.

The key to the penalty kill is twofold, first, you cannot let the seam pass get through, and second, you have to have the footspeed to read and react to the numerous situations presented. The seam pass is any pass that moves the puck from one side of the ice through the middle to the other. On a penalty kill, allowing this pass shifts the whole dynamic and forces a unit to go from structured to running around in a split second. If you’d like to see the seam pass in action, watch this video from NHL Now explaining the emergence of the seam pass.

The Rangers lack defensive footspeed, especially in Jacob Trouba, Marc Staal, and Brendan Smith, three big guys who are not known for their elite quickness. That forces the defense to play closer to the men in front, leaving the seams open and exposing the one-timer which so often comes back to bite the Rangers.

If New York wants to win more hockey games, it is no secret that the penalty kill needs to improve, and by swapping personnel and improving structure the Rangers may be able to do just that.

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