Mike Sullivan didn’t exactly hide from the numbers Wednesday. He just made sure everyone knew those numbers don’t tell the whole story.
The Rangers coach pushed back on the outside chatter surrounding New York’s defensive metrics, which have painted the team’s blue line in a less-than-flattering light so far this season. The concern, as laid out elsewhere, is that the Rangers are spending too much time defending, getting out-chanced, and posting a mediocre expected-goal share both as a team and across individual players.
That case is hard to ignore on paper. It’s also hard to argue with a 7-3-1 start, and Sullivan’s point was that context matters just as much as the spreadsheet.
“When you start looking at metrics and things of that nature, context is really important. If you don’t understand context, it’s hard for you to interpret data the right way,” the Rangers coach said Wednesday.
“So for example, if there’s a defense pair or a line combination that gets a lot of defensive-zone starts against the other team’s top players, they’re probably going to be on the ice for some chances against. But they might limit the quality of the chance or the quantity of the chances of the other team’s top players, and they keep them off the board, and we have success because of it.
Their metrics might not look positive, but the value is they help us win.”
That was the heart of it: the Rangers may not always look clean in the metrics, but Sullivan wants the conversation framed around usage, matchups, and outcome, not just the raw numbers. He doubled down on that idea when asked about the team’s second defensive pair of Marcus Pettersson and Sean Durzi.
The Rangers have clearly been better off with those two in that role than with the combinations they’ve used in recent seasons, and Sullivan wasn’t shy about saying he believes they’ve helped stabilize things.
“When you look at multiple data points, it gives you a little bit of a better picture of what that context is or what it looks like. So, we believe Marcus and ‘Durz’ have given us pretty good minutes,” Sullivan explained.
“Some nights they’ve been better than others, without a doubt. But I also think there’s more to it than (the analytics).”
That balance - the numbers, the results, the eye test, the human piece - is where Sullivan seems most comfortable. The Rangers are defending better in visible ways, too.
Their zone exits are cleaner, the support is sharper, and the structure looks more connected than in past seasons. A big reason for that, as noted, is that New York is working more effectively in five-man units, with the forwards more committed to a true 200-foot game.
Around the Rangers, there was plenty else to get to as well. Dylan Garand’s success is the focus of a look that leans more toward what’s happening upstairs than the technical side of his game.
Tomas Chrenko is heating up in Slovakia. In the NCAA men’s hockey rankings, the top five teams each has a Rangers prospect, including No.
1 Michigan with forward Malcolm Spence. And Keith Yandle recently shared on a podcast why he turned down a contract offer to stay with the Rangers in the summer of 2016.
Elsewhere around the NHL, Ottawa delivered one of the night’s loudest scenes. Senators fans had plenty to say to Brady Tkachuk in his first game back in Canadian Tire Centre after forcing a trade to the Florida Panthers this past offseason, and they made their message impossible to miss. Ottawa still won 5-1, even with Brady scoring the game’s first goal.
TSN also noted that the night may not have been all good news for the Senators, as No. 1 goalie Linus Ullmark left in the third period with a lower-body injury.
Sportsnet also highlighted the crowd’s creativity with a video of the chants directed at Tkachuk, while Florida Hockey Now offered the Panthers’ side of the story from an eventful night in Ottawa.
There was more across the league, too. New Jersey Hockey Now examined what it would take for the Devils to trade for Dylan Larkin and fit him under the salary cap. And in Pittsburgh, Dan Muse said in a radio interview that forward Ben Kindel is doing better and could return to Pittsburgh by the time you read this after a medical episode forced the team charter to return to Salt Lake City so he could be rushed to a local hospital.
In Other News...
Rangers May Have A Sneaky Answer To Their Center Depth Problem
With injuries thinning the roster and Igor Shesterkin already lost for the season, the Rangers have been looking for ways to stabilize the middle of the ice, especially after Joe Veleno went down. One of the quieter answers may be Luke Glendening, a veteran center whose reputation has long been built on reliability, detail and the kind of depth presence teams lean on when the lineup starts to fray.
Mike Sullivan pointed to Glendenings experience as part of what makes him appealing in this role, especially for a team trying to preserve both structure and identity while waiting for healthier days. The fit makes sense on paper for the No. 4 center job, and now the question is whether the Rangers see enough to keep moving forward with him as more than a temporary look. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers Prospect Pipeline Has One Encouraging Sign Fans Should Notice
A handful of Rangers prospects in Europe kept their seasons moving last week, and the most encouraging signs came from players starting to show a little more offensively. Tom Chrenko has been part of HK Nitras recent winning stretch in Slovakia, Ivan Patrikhayev is back in CSKA Moscows lineup with more ice time and an assist, and Mikkel Eriksen added his second SHL goal for Frjestad BK, all useful reminders that the system still has young players making progress in different leagues.
Rico Gredig also got into action for EV Zug in Switzerland and put three shots on goal, while Samuel Jung skated for KalPas U20 team in Finland as he works his way back from a concussion. For the Rangers, the bigger takeaway is less about any single box score and more about seeing several prospects stay active, contribute in different ways, and keep building momentum overseas while the club continues to track its pipeline. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers Still Face One Big Roadblock In Their Search For A Center
The Rangers have opened the season at 7-3-1 after an aggressive offseason aimed at putting last years last-place finish in the Eastern Conference behind them, and the early results have given the front office reason to keep pushing. Even with Igor Shesterkin out for the season, Dylan Garand has steadied the crease well enough to keep the club moving, but center remains the spot where New York is still looking for a clear upgrade.
That is why the persistent buzz around Detroits Dylan Larkin has lingered around the team, even if the fit is not nearly as simple as the Rangers would like. New York still has work to do in convincing a top center to land there, and the latest chatter suggests the market for Larkin may be wider than it first appeared, leaving the Rangers facing a familiar obstacle as they try to keep building on a promising start. [Read more 🡒]