Chris Drury must let the NY Rangers grow together
Drury set the team in motion with last season’s offseason moves, confident they’d be a playoff team. His trade deadline transactions solidified the team and pushed them through the playoffs. But it is how the team won during the season when not at its best, that must be understood.
The team was resilient and had a chip on their shoulder thanks to new coach Gerard Gallant. But it was the team’s power play and individually excellent seasons by Chris Kreider and Igor Shesterkin that kept the team moving forward. Without these efforts, the Rangers’ season would have been a far darker experience.
It was good, now it’s better
The Rangers iced virtually the same first power play unit as the year prior. Also like the year before, Mika Zibanejad, Kreider, Artemi Panarin, Ryan Strome and Adam Fox received the lion’s share of ice time during each man advantage. Though, year on year, the power play operated at a nearly 5% better success rate, equal to roughly 10 extra goals on the season.
Kreider became only the fourth Ranger to ever reach the 50-goal plateau. His 52 goals scored this past season were 24 more than his previous career-best and roughly 20 more than he was pacing the season before. He would add 10 more during the playoffs, tying the franchise record for most goals ever scored by a Ranger in one complete season.
Shesterkin had one of the best goaltending seasons in modern-day NHL history. He took home the Vezina Trophy and was nominated for the Hart trophy for his efforts. During the season he posted a .935% save percentage, significantly better than the .916% save percentage from the season prior. The improvement is equal to about 31 fewer goals surrendered.
What happens when greatness is just really good?
The 2021-22 Rangers would finish with a +47 goal differential. This is with Kreider and the power play adding between 20 and 30 more goals while Shesterkin gave up 31 less. Had these figures more reflected the results from the 2020-21 campaign, the team could have finished with a goal differential as bad as -10. Simply put, they would not have been a playoff team.