mats zuccarello

As of publication of this post on October 19, 2017, the Rangers stink. It’s a hard truth. But there is nothing going right, and even a regression away from 4% shooting back to 7% shooting won’t save them. They are, in a word, horrible.

There are many people to blame, and we’ve covered it all. But in the end it comes down to execution on the ice. When the team struggles, you turn to guys who have been through it before. The problem, though, is those guys are not producing at all.

Other than Mika Zibanejad, no one is scoring. But it goes beyond the counting stats. We’d be able to blame that on poor luck to start the season. But the on-ice process has been atrocious. Using xGF%, only four Rangers are over 50%, meaning only four Rangers are playing to an expected positive goal differential when on the ice. Those four are Zibanejad, Pavel Buchnevich, Chris Kreider, and Ryan McDonagh. Kevin Hayes is at 49.88%, so let’s call that an even 50%.

The next Ranger on this list? You guessed it….Marc Staal.

Yea, not quite what you expected, right?

Guys who are being relied upon to at least play to the proper process when not putting up numbers, well they aren’t doing much. Rick Nash (47%), Mats Zuccarello (41.11%), Michael Grabner (40.54%), Kevin Shattenkirk (43.19%), Brady Skjei (41.3%), and Brendan Smith (44%) all have bad numbers on an epic level.

There is some small sample size risk here, but the numbers and the on ice performance match. The Rangers have not been getting anything outside of the KZB line and Ryan McDonagh (Monday’s game notwithstanding). Guys like Zucc and Nash and Shatty and Smith have been around long enough with good results that they are relied upon to help be a stabilizing force. They have not done so yet.

The good news is that they can’t get much worse. The bad news is that the Rangers may have already dug themselves a hole too deep to climb out of come March/April. Time is running out, and it’s on the old guard to start putting up or shutting up.

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