Photo: Elsa/Getty Images

Photo: Elsa/Getty Images

Early in this season the Rangers defense was in crisis, hemorrhaging shot attempts on a nightly basis and struggling to breakout of the zone cleanly. It was obvious during this period that Dan Girardi and Marc Staal were struggling, but perhaps most surprising of all were captain Ryan McDonagh’s struggles. Of course lately we’ve seen the Rangers tightening up their blue line, with their overall possession game trending upwards and their dangerous habit of giving up massive amounts of shot attempts evening out to reasonable levels. As the Rangers’ process has improved overall, so has the situation of their captain, sort of.

Let’s start with the obvious: Ryan McDonagh has seen less ice time with his usual defense partner Dan Girardi, and his game is better for it. While CF% alone isn’t perhaps the best way to evaluate a player, it is pretty notable that McDonagh’s CF% is 40.5 when the two are on ice together and 55.1% otherwise. Kevin Klein’s play this season has allowed the Rangers the option of splitting McDonagh and Girardi up, and the benefits are plain to see.

By not spending so much time pinned in his own end, McDonagh has put up five points in his last eleven games, compared to one in his first eleven. This brings his primary assists total up to 13, tied for 6th among NHL defensemen. His skating ability and shifty moves were notably on display against Vancouver the other night, with McDonagh covering large swaths of ice and setting up plays freely. While this game in particular featured an almost complete lack of defense by the Canucks, it’s still something to see McDonagh’s full potential on display for a full game.

His play relative to his team mates has improved too, with his relative CF%, SCF% (scoring chances) and HSCF% (high danger scoring chances) for the last 11 games being 4.2%, 7.7%, and 24.1% respectively. This is a marked improvement over his first 11 games of the season, when those same numbers relative to his team mates were -1.39%, -3.3%, and 1.7%. So not only is he on ice for more shot attempts, scoring chances, and high danger scoring chances than he was at the beginning of the season, but he’s on ice for these events even more so than his team mates are by some degree. This is overall good news for those of us who were concerned about the captain’s play at the onset of the season.

So what’s not to like? Well although his percentages have improved the overall number of shots, scoring chances, and high danger scoring chances he’s facing on any given night have remained somewhat close to where they were at in the beginning of the season. Consider his last 11 games, when he’s average 50.9 shots against per 60 minutes, 22 scoring chances against per 60 minutes, and 8.4 high danger chances against per 60 minutes. These rates are only slightly better than his first 11 games, when those same numbers were 54.2 shots against per 60, 24 scoring chances against per 60, and 8.05 high danger chances against per 60 minutes. All in all it’s improvement, but it’s modest at best.

What this all means, when taken together, is that although spending time playing alongside Kevin Klein has enabled Ryan McDonagh to better unlock his offensive potential, he’s still getting shellacked at almost the same rates that he was early on in the season, when his struggles (and the defensive corps’ struggles overall) were more readily apparent.

While it’s good that he’s evened things out a little bit, if he and the Rangers can find themselves less often in situations where they’re giving up shots and scoring chances, his game might really take off. Of course there’s also the argument to be made that Ryan McDonagh’s the kind of defensmen you want on the ice for those tough defensive situations, but that’s a topic for another day.

 

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