The New York Rangers are about to finish an ugly season. No, not ugly in terms of playing abysmal hockey and ending up with a top-five lottery pick. But when you won the Presidents’ Trophy just one season ago before falling out of playoff contention, that’s all the evidence you need to claim that 2024-25 had been one ugly campaign.
When they had the puck, the Rangers were okay, still one of the better-scoring teams in hockey. With just a few games left, they’re still 12th in the league with 246 goals scored. The problem occurred on the other side of the ice, where they’re currently 21st with 252 goals allowed.
For one, opponents kept finding good looks, evidenced with their 2,394 shots allowed after 80 games. Do the math, and that’s over 29 shots on goal allowed per contest. It’s hard to win in this league when you allow so many chances, regardless of who’s in the net.
New York Rangers played like a team that couldn't stop anyone
When that goaltender is having a rough season despite posting five shutouts, well, this is what you end up with. A team that played above-average hockey on a good day and looked lost in roughly half their games. At best, the Rangers would’ve ended up as the ‘happy to be there’ team had they made the playoffs.
As mentioned, they were good offensively, but not good enough to bail out poor defense. While they did their due diligence at times, even racking up 631 high-danger chances through 80 games and scoring on 9.2 percent of those chances, they gave up an ugly 658.
Want to know the league average? 603. That means the Rangers gave up 55 more throughout that 80-game stretch. They allowed 1,879 scoring chances, 121 higher than the NHL average of 1,758. You look at all of these above numbers, and it’s not hard to pinpoint where the problem is.
If the Rangers plan on returning to the postseason, playing better hockey when they don’t have the puck is a prerequisite. If not, they’re going to end up right back where they are now, and we’re going to be having this same conversation.
Rangers have talent but playing one-dimensional hockey has its limits
Overall, the Rangers played like a one-dimensional team, and rarely played a solid game in all three zones. Yeah, they were physical, averaging 25.5 hits per game. Yeah, their top six still have names you can consider star-studded. And yeah, if they fix their issues without the puck, they have a strong chance to revert to what they were in 2023-24.
So, let’s hope this one was an eye-opener for a Blueshirts team that shocked just about everyone in the worst ways. Their fanbase had reason to believe 2024-25 was going to be the year, and it wouldn’t surprise me if a lot of people around the league saw the Blueshirts hoisting the Stanley Cup.
But at the end of the day, it was a slate of 80 subpar games they’ll never get back, with two remaining in the season. That said, get ready for one interesting offseason in New York because changes are coming.