Hartnett: Rangers Off To Outstanding Start Despite .500 Record

By Sean Hartnett
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The Rangers are off to a 2-2 start. Yet, their record isn't an accurate representation of how well they have played to open the 2016-17 season.

Regardless of what their record says, the Rangers have put together four dominant games in which they have produced exceptional shot generation and substantial offensive zone time. Their speed continually pressures opponents into mistakes and has led to oodles of breakaways and optimal scoring chances.

They really should be 4-0.

On Wednesday night, the Rangers lost to visiting Detroit, 2-1, despite outshooting the Red Wings, 33-18. They generated 74 shot attempts compared to Detroit's 44. It was a similar script to Saturday's 3-2 defeat in St. Louis. The Rangers did everything right, but were were robbed of a victory by a hot goalie. This time it was Jimmy Howard instead of Carter Hutton stealing the show.

Following the defeat, disappointed goaltender Henrik Lundqvist could not believe the Rangers' luck in a game they controlled from start to finish.

"It's tough to accept because we played really well," Lundqvist said. "We had enough chances to be up probably four goals. I don't think we can play much better."

The 34-year-old franchise netminder revealed that the message during the second intermission was to stick to a process that was working, a process the Rangers believed would result in certain victory.

"Going into the third, we talked about not changing anything because we played well enough to win this game," Lundqvist said. "We played well enough, created enough chances to score."

Through four games, the Rangers are tied for sixth in the NHL with 34 shots per game and their 23.8 shots against per game ranks third fewest. Their breakouts have been clean and their first passes and connecting passes have been crisp. As mentioned earlier, their speed and pressure has forced opponents into mistakes. No team has bettered the Rangers' 41 takeaways.

Puck luck hasn't been the Blueshirts friend, however. Disadvantageous bounces and unkind posts have conspired against them and have made fans groan in disbelief.

Eventually, their luck should change. Luck is the kind of thing that evens out over the course of an 82-game season. If the Rangers keep playing this way, they're going to be rewarded -- a lot.

"It's tough to not look at the result," alternate captain Derek Stepan said. "You look at the 60 minutes of hockey ... I'm fairly confident if we play 60 minutes of hockey like that for 82 games, we're going to have more success than less. That's for sure. We did a lot of really good things. Jimmy Howard played a heck of a game. Give them credit."

Last season, the Rangers started the season 16-3-2, but their strong start was deceptive and largely due to the excellent goaltending of Lundqvist and backup Antti Raanta. As the season went on, the Rangers proved to be a third-place team in the Metropolitan Division and an easy first-round knockout for the eventual Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins.

"I would say the honest answer is that for some parts of some games we haven't been as good as we can be," head coach Alain Vigneault said on Nov. 29. "We've probably gotten some of those wins because of extraordinary goaltending."

Wins and streaks, whether good or bad, can be deceiving. The overall process, the positive trends and underlying analytics show that this Rangers team is night and day different to last season's group, which spent far too much time chasing in its own end.

The Rangers have the speed and skill to emerge as the genuine article as the season goes on.

Follow Sean on Twitter at @HartnettHockey