Rangers’ hot shooting continues despite losses to Devils, Blue Jackets
The New York Rangers were due for a PDO bender after starting the season as one of the NHL’s worst goal-scoring teams.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t until the Rangers were effectively eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoff contention and had traded their best offensive player Artemi Panarin, that their improved shooting touch finally appeared.
But the Rangers’ recent hot shooting continued, despite the fact they dropped their third straight game, this one on the road against the Columbus Blue Jackets. It was their second 6-3 loss in as many nights; they fell 6-3 at home to the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday.
Rangers shooting lights out since Olympic break
The Rangers struggle to score goals at Madison Square Garden — they are last in home goals (71) and goals per game (2.22), and seven their 17 losses were shutouts. But they’re ninth in the NHL in road goals per game with 3.30 and reached the three-goal threshold in their fifth straight road game.
The Rangers’ offense has been potent and efficient especially since the post-Olympic restart. They are third in the NHL in PDO (1.049) — which measures the sum of a team’s shooting percentage and save percentage — a consequence of Igor Shesterkin‘s return from injury and their league-leading 15.6 percentage in their 12 post-Olympic games.
The Rangers are 6-4-2 in those 12 games despite their 28th-ranked expected-goals percentage (44.1 percent, per Natural Stat Trick).
Tye Kartye, who has a 10.8 career shooting percentage, is shooting 18.2 percent since joining the Rangers 10 games ago. Alexis Lafreniere is shooting 25.9 percent in the Rangers’ past nine games and scored his 20th goal of the season Thursday.
Still, riding a PDO bender — and a hot power play — has been a formula for winning in the past for the Rangers.
Unsurprisingly, New York has been red hot on the power play as well. The Rangers are 10 for 31 (32.3 percent) with the man advantage in their past 11 games after Lafreniere scored on the power play 50 seconds into the third period against Columbus.
Despite hot shooting, Rangers unsatisfied with recent play
Teams can ride a PDO bender for an entire season — the 2021-22 Rangers had the NHL’s No. 2 PDO at 1.024, keyed by Shesterkin’s Vezina Trophy-winning performance.
But this group of Rangers can’t outgun their suddenly scuffling penalty kill. They allowed a PPG for the fourth straight game and have killed just 18 of their past 27 PKs (66.7 percent.
“It hasn’t been very good for a little while now,” Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said after they allowed two power-play goals against the Devils on Wednesday. “A lot of it boils down to details.”
The Rangers were outshot 37-25 in Columbus on Thursday, the fourth straight game in which they allowed more shots than they put on goal.
The Blue Jackets also finished with a 61-46 advantage in shot attempts, the seventh time in nine games the Rangers had fewer attempts than their opponent — despite the fact they are 5-4-0 in that span.
The Rangers are 31st in the NHL in home shooting percentage (8.79 percent) and will return home for nine of their next 10 games, starting Sunday afternoon against the Winnipeg Jets.
