GRAB' & GOALS
Speedy winger is scoring revelation for Blueshirts
COLORING the Blueshirts by numbers awaiting Wednesday’s return from the Christmas hiatus against Washington at the Garden:
1. Since Michael Grabner joined the Rangers at the start of last season, the Austrian Express leads the club in overall goal scoring with 44, five more than Chris Kreider, 12 more than Rick Nash, 15 more than J.T. Miller, 18 more than Kevin Hayes, 20 more than Jimmy Vesey and 21 more than Mats Zuccarello. Grabner had played the sixth-most minutes of that group, getting more ice time than only Vesey.
At five-on-five, Grabner leads the club with 31 goals, seven more than Kreider, nine more than Hayes, 11 more than Nash, 13 more than Vesey, 15 more than Miller and 18 more than both Zuccarello and Mika Zibanejad. Again, Grabner had the sixthmost minutes of that group, playing more than just Nash and Zibanejad.
Grabner is tied for eighth in the NHL in five-on-five goals since the start of last year, trailing Auston Matthews (38), Anders Lee (37), Nikita Kucherov (36), Jeff Skinner (36), Patrick Kane (35), Rickard Rakell (33) and Vladimir Tarasenko (32).
In five-on-five goals per 60 minutes, Grabner is third in the league at 1.41, trailing co-leaders Lee and Matthews at 1.46.
Since pulling on the Blueshirt, Grabner has played a total of 7:21 on the power play.
2. Henrik Lundqvist has started 31 of the Rangers’ 36 games (and 22 of the last 24). With the five games remaining until the halfway mark all separated by at least one day, it is reasonable to believe that the King will start them all.
That would bring his total to 36, which would equal the most first-half starts of his career, matching his 2009-10 season.
Since the beginning of November, Lundqvist is 14-5-1 with a .931 save percentage and a 2.33 GAA. The King’s five-on-five save percentage over that span is .937.
3. The meaning of Corsi can be debated. If those public numbers were dispositive, clubs would not invest in their own analytics departments.
For your perusal, though, the Rangers are 23rd in the league in shot attempts and 29th in shot attempts against, better than only the Coyotes and Ducks in that category, and 30th in shot percentage, ahead of only the Wild. They are 14th in shots per game, 29th in shots against per and 29th in shots for/against percentage.
Starting with Oct. 31, the Blueshirts have gone 16-6-2, fourth best in the NHL behind Tampa Bay (16-5-1), Nashville (165-3) and Washington (17-7-1). Over that stretch, they are last in the league in Corsi percentage, so make of that what you will.
4. The Kreider-ZibanejadPavel Buchnevich line has been on the ice for 194:04 at five-onfive with a 55.2 Corsi, but has recorded just five goals while surrendering eight. The Kreider-David Desharnais-Buchnevich unit has been on for 85:45 with a Corsi of 42.5 while scoring five times and yielding two.
The Nash-Hayes-Zuccarello unit hasn’t been scored upon in 97:45 while registering six goals with a 49.5 Corsi. The GrabnerMiller-Zuccarello line has played 126:40 with a 48.5 Corsi while scoring six goals and surrendering four.
5. Five-on-five plus-minus: Forwards: Grabner, plus-eight (21/13); Boo Nieves, plus-seven (9/2); Miller, plus-six (25/19); Buchnevich, plus-five (19/14); Kreider, plus-three (18/15); Hayes, plus-three (22/19); Jesper Fast, plus-three (18/15); Zuccarello, plus-two (21/19); Paul Carey, even (10/10); Nash, minus-three (17/20); Desharnais, minus-three (16/19); Vesey, minus-five (19/24); Zibanejad, minus-six (12/18).
Defensemen: Brendan Smith, plus-nine (26/17); Ryan McDonagh, plus-six (32/26); Nick Holden, plus-six (29/23); Marc Staal, plus-three (19/16); Brady Skjei, minus-one (20/21); Steven Kampfer, minus-two (3/5); Kevin Shattenkirk, minus-four (22/26).
6. Cap alert: Anton Stralman costs $22.5 million against the cap on the five-year contract he signed with Tampa Bay in 2014, when the Rangers allowed him to hit the open market. The Blueshirts’ total to replace Stralman on the right with Dan Boyle (two years, $9 million), Shattenkirk ($13.3 million through next year) and the amount allotted to Smith last season following his acquisition from Detroit ($626,400) equals $22,926,400.