Rangers test their mettle against the St. Louis Blues tonight and more #BreakingCorsi

Anthony Scultore Updated: Nov 12, 2015

The Rangers are due for a loss. That could be one way to look at it from just a law of averages standpoint and it could happen tonight. They can’t expect to keep coming out of the gate slow and get the first goal anyway. Will it happen though is another question.

Yesterday someone put out another fancy stat chart showing the Rangers PDO at an unsustainable level. Just in case you don’t know what the hell this metric is, from Wikipedia:

PDO, called SPSV%” by the NHL,^[4] is the sum of a team’s shooting percentage and its save percentage.^[7] PDO is usually measured at even strength, and based on the theory that most teams will ultimately regress toward a sum of 100, is often viewed as a proxy for how lucky a team is.

Yes, the Rangers are really lucky (sarcasm….dripping, soaking wet sarcasm). Please stop the BS already “smarter than everyone” fancy stats people. The Rangers do have a ridiculous high PDO of 107.1 and no doubt that number will come down, but it doesn’t mean they’re going to fall apart.

Let’s ignore that last year they were #1 in that stat at 101.9 and since 2011-12 have only finished out of top 10 once. In 2013-14, they came in 19th at 99.7 because they spent half the year adjusting to Alain Vigneault‘s new system. By the way, they also went to the Stanley Cup Final that year, so go figure that out.

So yes, a regression is coming but don’t expect a string of losses to follow and it won’t start tonight against St. Louis either. Thanks to elite level goaltending, talented and skilled players and a system that fits them, the Rangers will continue to be one of the NHL’s best regardless of whatever PDO number they settle in at.

More Nash Tonight Please

Rick Nash has finally broken through (legitimately) against Carolina. His goal came when he passed the “slot line” which is key to note. MSG did a great piece on Nash’s scoring woes and indicated only one time before that tally did Nash receive a pass across the imaginary line that goes from the middle of the net out.

Why is this significant? Because it requires the goalie to move across the net and make a difficult save. So more of that please. For more info on this please follow Steve Valiquette on twitter and watch the video here:

Brand New!! Watch prior to tonight’s NYR game if possible!! #NashFest https://t.co/oDIEn0bJV6

— Stephen Valiquette (@Vallys_View) November 10, 2015

Neutralize Vladimir Tarasenko

Easier said than done my friends. He has 7 goals on the year and shooting at a 12% success rate. Bottom line is you don’t want him firing the puck at will. If I’m Alain Vigneault I’m sticking the 4th line on him as much as possible with a heavy does of Dan Girardi and Ryan McDonagh.

Yes, Dan Girardi. His penchant for shot blocking will come in handy against a guy who likes to fire the puck a little over 4 times a game.

And In Goal…

When he’s not stopping pucks against the NHL’s best, he stops pies on late night TV.

[su_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YqQd3WgM1M”]

Tonight, he will face a very good puck moving Blues team and have his work cut out for him. Then again, with the way he’s playing this year, they could shoot peas at him and he’d stop over 98% of them.

In the Blues goal, Jake Allen is on a bit if a tear. He recorded his second straight shutout on Tuesday night and has won 3 in a row. Time for the streak to end kiddo.