Six weeks of unsustainable SH% for four Rangers

NYPOST.COM

The Rangers were absolutely decimated by injuries in October and November, at one point skating without their top line center and four of their top-six defensemen. When you’re dressing options seven, eight, nine, and ten on the blue line, you need better contributions from those in the lineup. Luckily for the Rangers, four guys stepped up their games offensively to fill the void. Rick Nash (12-6-18), Derick Brassard (6-7-13), Martin St. Louis (6-6-12), and Kevin Klein (3-2-5) were major contributors in keeping the Rangers afloat.

Nash has been a force all season, looking like the Rick Nash the Rangers traded for in 2012. MSL has been contributing at his normal career pace despite playing a good number of the games at center this year. Brassard has shown great chemistry with them as well, looking like that $5 million center they re-signed in the offseason. As for Klein, he’s never cracked the five goal mark in a season, and he looks to be well on his way this year.

But these four players have one thing in common – unsustainable SH%, that is surely to regress as the season bears on.

Nash (career average SH% – 12.5%) and Klein (4.4%) lead the way, shooting at an absurd 20% clip. Brassard (11%) and MSL (13.5%) are right behind them at ~18%. Those numbers, even without factoring in their career averages, are not sustainable. Klein in particular isn’t going to contribute at a 40-point pace when his career high is 21 in 2011-2012. Nash also won’t continue at his current 61 goal pace. But that doesn’t mean the Rangers are going to crash and burn when regression hits this quartet.

Other players, specifically Dan Boyle, Marc Staal, and Ryan McDonagh, won’t continue to shoot 0%. Well, McDonagh will until his shoulder heals. But the first two won’t. They will certainly be positively regressing to their career averages. Same goes for John Moore.

That’s not to say Nash, Brassard, and MSL will all of a sudden stop contributing –and an argument can be made that their jobs will be made easier once the blue line is capable of moving the puck and contributing on offense– as they regress. What is more likely to occur is a more balanced offensive attack, one that doesn’t solely rely on one top line and random contributions here and there. We can expect the Chris Kreider-Derek Stepan-Mats Zuccarello trio to consistently tribute.

The Rangers have a very strong top-six that has been carrying the load through the first 16 games. The current top line won’t continue producing at their current clip, but improved contributions from the blue line (along with continued contributions from the second line) will help. At 7-6-3, the Rangers are right in the thick of things, and should only improve with a more balanced attack.