By: Chris Boyle Follow @ChrisBoyle33 Every move the Islanders make seem to be with an eye on July 1, 2018 and John Tavares’ impending free agency. Tavares is a do-everything center, but even that ability has seen the Isles’ captain reach the second round of the playoffs just once in the first eight seasons of […]
By: Chris Boyle Follow @ChrisBoyle33 Oscar Lindberg is a Vegas Golden Knight. While the Rangers lost a player who showed plenty of promise, they didn’t see enough of Lindberg in a role where they could truly discover his offensive potential. During his time with the Blueshirts, Lindberg showed bursts of creativity when he was on […]
By: Chris Boyle Follow @ChrisBoyle33 Sometimes loyalty can get in the way of making smart decisions. The Rangers were extremely loyal to Dan Girardi … and for good reason. Over his 11 seasons with the Blueshirts, he poured his heart and soul into the organization, and sacrificed his body time and time again. Unfortunately, this […]
By: Chris Boyle Follow @ChrisBoyle33 What a bizarre Stanley Cup Final. Through the first two games, the Nashville Predators outplayed the Pittsburgh Penguins fairly significantly, yet came up empty handed. Pekka Rinne was bit by the regression bug. The Predators go home and the gap in performance tightens, but Matt Murray suffers a similar crash. [Read: […]
By: Chris Boyle Follow @ChrisBoyle33 The Pittsburgh Penguins are sitting in the exact same position they were last season. After Wednesday’s victory, the Penguins are once again up two games to none and in the driver’s seat, two games away from a championship repeat. The surface results are the same, but the metrics don’t favor […]
By: Chris Boyle Follow @ChrisBoyle33 With a .941 save percentage through the first three rounds, it is easy to see why Pekka Rinne has emerged as a favorite for the Conn Smythe Trophy. Goaltenders with those type of gaudy numbers are easily identified and goaltenders only trail centers in the traditional voting results for MVP. […]
By: Chris Boyle Follow @ChrisBoyle33 They are at it again. The Senators bullied the defending Stanley Cup champions into a corner with their decisive 5-1 victory in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Final, pushing their Cinderella run much further than anybody anticipated. The Senators are starting to push into uncharted post-lockout territory. Teams with […]
By: Chris Boyle Follow @ChrisBoyle33 The Rangers have built their recent foundation of success on elite goaltending and torrid shooting streaks. With this type of blueprint, it is possible to be outchanced and outpossesed and still emerge victorious. The Blueshirts moved away from this over-reliance this season and it is ironic that their elimination came at […]
By: Chris Boyle Follow @ChrisBoyle33 The Rangers may have entered their series with the Senators as heavy favorites, but actually their regular-season shot metrics painted a picture of a team who could struggle with the team speed of Ottawa. The Senators also boasted an early Conn Smythe candidate in Erik Karlsson who had dominated the Bruins […]
By: Chris Boyle Follow @ChrisBoyle33 It’s hard to look at the Ottawa Senators as a formidable foe when essentially everybody thinks the Rangers are a lock for the Eastern Conference Final. Most playoff predictors have the Sens as the least likely team to advance into Round 2. It’s fairly easy to see why: The Senators have […]
By: Chris Boyle Follow @ChrisBoyle33 After a perfect road game to start the series, the Rangers found themselves in trouble entering Game 3. Even though the Habs found themselves on the ropes for 59 minutes and 18 seconds away from a 2-0 hole, the Canadiens found their stride and began to pull away from a team […]
By: Chris Boyle Follow @ChrisBoyle33 Coming into the playoffs, the Canadiens-Rangers matchup looked like a toss-up. While the Canadiens won all three regular-season matchups, the shot metrics showed a .039 difference between the two Eastern Conference rivals. Over 185 minutes, the Rangers and Canadiens were separated by one clear-sighted shot from a foot inside the blueline. […]
By: Chris Boyle Follow @ChrisBoyle33 With the first round matchup with the Montreal Canadiens locked in, the Rangers finally have something to focus on. The Canadiens are a dangerous first round opponent and present a significant threat to the Rangers’ Stanley Cup aspirations because of the possibility of Carey Price stealing a series. Since Chris Kreider […]
By: Chris Boyle Follow @ChrisBoyle33 The Rangers punched their ticket to the Stanley Cup lottery with a point in San Jose on Tuesday. For a team like the Maple Leafs, that is the goal. For a contender like the Rangers, this is just the entry point towards their aspirations of winning the Stanley Cup. Is the […]
By: Chris Boyle Follow @ChrisBoyle33 With the Rangers virtually locked into the first wild card spot, the team’s immediate focus is getting Henrik Lundqvist back in the lineup and keeping the players healthy before the playoffs begin. The Blueshirts’ playoff opponent is still to be determined, but the site sportsclubstats.com has their likely first-round opponent as the Montreal […]
By: Chris Boyle Follow @ChrisBoyle33 Rebuilding your team on the fly is a difficult thing to do. After last season’s disappointing first-round exit to the Penguins, the Rangers looked to be in a difficult place. Older veterans and a younger core that hadn’t quite taken over yet, left the Blueshirts in a difficult spot between a […]
By Chris Boyle Follow @ChrisBoyle33 Derek Stepan is currently struggling to score. He hasn’t scored in his last 56 shots and his shooting percentage has plummeted from 10.6% (his career shooting percentage) to 7.6%. This is a perceived problem in a game like hockey where the goals are so rare. Because they happen so infrequently, […]
By Chris Boyle Follow @ChrisBoyle33 The Buffalo Sabres are on the perimeter of the playoff race, only four points out with 20 games to go as I write this. This is a pretty remarkable achievement considering they played a quarter of the season without Jack Eichel and have continually struggled to maintain positive possession numbers. […]
BY: CHRIS BOYLE In order to have sustainable offensive success, it is essential to deceive opposition defenses and goaltenders. There are plenty of tactical approaches to achieve this deception and one of the most valuable is the ability to destabilize a goaltender’s sightlines while creating high leverage shot attempts. This is commonly known as net-front presence. […]
BY: CHRIS BOYLE After the Rangers‘ exit from the 2015-16 NHL playoffs, there were concerns that the Cup window had closed. When you go “all in” by trading future draft picks and prospects for deadline acquisitions like Keith Yandle, Eric Staal and Martin St. Louis, you require impact performances from unexpected sources. The Rangers came up […]
By: Chris Boyle The Islanders have solidified their position in goal after giving Thomas Greiss a contract extension. It may seem like a significant commitment to a goaltender who has never played more than 41 games in a season, but it is a solid gamble and could be a good value play. His new contract would barely […]
By: Chris Boyle Rebuilding through the draft is the best way to reinvigorate a franchise. If done properly, you not only give your team a talent infusion, but you populate your roster with high-ceiling/cost-controlled assets which can allow you to also build effectively through free agency. The Sabres have shone a spotlight through this intelligent team-building […]
By Chris Boyle Recent results around the NHL would lead a casual observer to believe the high-scoring days of the 1980s are back. Teams are engaging in run-and-gun games and elite goaltenders in the NHL are not immune. Both Henrik Lundqvist and Carey Price recently surrendered seven goals against in a game over the last […]
By Chris Boyle Ryan McDonagh earned an All-Star berth for the second straight season following Tuesday’s announcement of the NHL’s All-Star rosters. The Rangers‘ captain continues to be the anchor of the team’s blueline, but traditional advanced data doesn’t appreciate the dominant player he truly is. Over the last two seasons, McDonagh has been a mediocre […]
By Chris Boyle Since the beginning of the 2014-15 season, the Rangers have been ranked in the bottom third in possession. Yet, only the Washington Capitals have managed to produce more regular-season points during this period. The results are polar opposites from what the analytics community has come to expect. It’s why the Rangers continue to […]
By Chris Boyle In search of a running mate for Jack Eichel, the the Sabres dipped into the free-agency pool and acquired long-time John Tavares wingman Kyle Okposo in the offseason. Their chemistry on the Island was unmistakable. Tavares possesses one of the greatest offensive skill sets in the NHL and Okposo proved to be a strong complement […]
By Chris Boyle The thought of a Rangers goalie controversy is absolutely absurd on the surface. With a Hall-of-Famer coming off an MVP-level campaign, the notion that anybody could push Henrik Lundqvist to the bench for any reason outside of rest or injury was insane just a month ago, but it is exactly what has […]
By Chris Boyle Consistency is a hallmark of valuable players. Players that come to play every night and provide effort are fan favorites and media darlings. It’s easy to see effort when it involves taking the body. It’s why checking forwards and stay-at-home defensemen can be very easily overrated. At its base, it is a […]
By Chris Boyle Jack Eichel is back. Like a returning savior, the 20-year-old immediately provided hope for the Sabres‘ once-struggling offense. In a mere 17 minutes, Eichel notched a goal and an assist in Tuesday’s win against the Senators. He followed up that performance with a two-goal effort Thursday in a comeback win over the Rangers. […]
By Chris Boyle Possessing elite goaltending is the equivalent of a video game cheat code. It helps you avoid prolonged slumps in play and virtually assures you of yearly playoff contention. When you don’t possess it, some of your underlying issues are exposed. The Islanders possess a franchise-defining center, but they have struggled to find secondary scoring so […]
By Chris Boyle When NHL teams pick through the discount bin during the offseason, they usually get the best bargains with players that are coming off an injury-plagued period or players who suffered through a prolonged shooting slump. When you can combine both those factors, it can present the opportunity for a low risk/high reward […]
By Chris Boyle The Rangers are off to a hot start again. Because of the small sample nature of early season data analysis, some in the hockey analytics world have flagged the Rangers for regression from such a hot start. Sky-high PDO (shooting percentage + save percentage) and mediocre possession numbers (49.2 percent) suggest that the good […]
By Chris Boyle One of the cornerstones of any team with championship aspirations is an elite centerman. We continually witness this every June when Gary Bettman comes out to a chorus of boos and hands over the Stanley Cup. Sidney Crosby, Jonathan Toews, Anze Kopitar, Ryan Getzlaf and Patrice Bergeron have all taken laps with […]
By Chris Boyle The 2015-16 New York Rangers were a team driven by individual greatness. They continually outperformed their possession and shot metrics. Spectacular goaltending from Henrik Lundqvist masked some of their deficiencies, but in the end, they were eliminated in the first round by the Penguins. The loss to the eventual Stanley Cup champions provided the […]
By Chris Boyle When Taylor Hall joined the Edmonton Oilers from the Windsor Spitfires, he did so with a near flawless resume. The first pick overall in the 2010 NHL Draft was a two-time Memorial Cup champion, a World Under-18 Champion with Team Canada and a silver medal at the World Under-20 Championships. He was […]