Rangers Resurgence and High Powered Offense led by these three reasons
The Rangers are sporting a nice 7-3 record, are atop the Metro division, 3rd in the NHL and changing opinions of many NHL experts. All those stats above are nice, but it’s their 40 goals for and +18 differential after 10 games that is turning heads.
So what three reasons stand out to make this possible? How about what 3 players.
Chris Kreider
The 25 year old power forward seems to have finally taken all his tools and realized his full potential. Kreider has 3 goals and 9 points in just 6 games. He is one point behind unlikely leading scoring J.T. Miller who has 10 points in 10 games. Miller is another great story too, but he’s also been the beneficiary of some great plays by teammates.
Kreider is the real deal. His 3 goals are coming off a sustainable shooting percentage of 10.7 (2 points shot of his career avg). He’s a force on the Rangers PP with 3 points, just 1 behind team leader, Zibanejad (4).
If Kreider can maintain this level of play, the Rangers offense and PP will be a force all season.
Mika Zibanejad
Jeff Gorton looks absolutely brilliant for making this trade. Ottawa trying to save themselves a few bucks both short and long term, gave the Rangers a huge gift. The deal was done at the draft, but they waited to announce until after the Rangers paid Brassard’s 2 million bonus. That short term savings also landed the Rangers a 2nd round pick. WOW!
So why Zibanejad? His shot from the right side on the PP has been key in the Rangers improvement with the man advantage. As I mentioned before, he has 4 points on the PP and shockingly no PPGs! Still, the threat has had a huge impact.
Take note, Mika is only shooting 6% which is 4.5 points shy of his career mark. Once those snipes from the right circle hit the back of the net, expect his already impressive stats to rise along with his shooting percentage.
At 23 years of age….Zibanejad is an offensive catalyst on the PP for the next 5-6 years.
Jimmy Vesey
The kid (he’s 23) is great…an absolute gem. If the Rangers continue to have a successful season, Jeff Gorton may win GM of the year. Vesey leads the team in goals. I repeat…Vesey leads the team in goals. Now before you get overly giddy, his 6 goals have only come on 18 shots for a 33% shooting percentage which is not sustainable for 82 games.
This does nothing to diminish his impact on the team, the offense in general, and Rick Nash specifically. Thus far, Vesey has shared the ice with many Rangers in the top 9 but his chemistry with Rick Nash has been something to behold.
Vesey has also seemed to spark Rick Nash’s game who has scored his 5 goals in the last 8, with 3 in his last 4. They have assisted on 2 of each’s last 3 goals so the chemistry is undeniable.
For this reason and the fact that he has given the Rangers 3 deep offensive lines are why Vesey rounds out the top 3.
Honorable Mentions
As I said before, J.T. Miller deserves recognition. With that said, so does Brandon Pirri, Kevin Hayes and Michael Grabner. When you take them all into account what you do get is depth.
So, it is very easy to say that maybe the real top reason is that the Rangers have 13 forwards right now the could play on most teams top 9. It is that level of depth that makes the Rangers the best offensive team in the league.
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