This is our post for 2011.

Hi.

During today's Rangers/Senators game, the commentators were talking about how lucky the Rangers have been to be .500 considering how bad their offense has been. They noted how rare it is for a team to be in that position when they're 29th in the league offensively. There are two problems with that.

First of all, they're not .500. They're 3-3-2. That's .375. If a team went ".500" throughout the year they'd finish with 82 points and miss the playoffs. Minnesota went 4 games over ".500" last year and finished 12th in the western conference.

Second, it's not a terrible thing for a team to be bad offensively. Some teams are built to focus on defense. I compiled a list of teams who have struggled offensively the past few years and finished with a ".500" record.

Season, Team, Goals/Gm, Rank, Record, Made Playoffs?

2009-10, Boston, 2.39, 30th, 39-30-13, Yes
2009-10, Calgary, 2.45, 29th, 40-32-10, No
2008-09, NY Rangers, 2.44, 28th, 43-30-9, Yes
2007-08, Anaheim, 2.40, 28th, 47-27-8, Yes
2007-08, New Jersey, 2.42, 27th, 46-29-7, Yes
2007-08, NY Rangers, 2.50, 25th, 42-27-13, Yes
2007-08, Boston, 2.51, 24th, 41-29-12, Yes
2006-07, New Jersey, 2.51, 27th, 49-24-9, Yes
2005-06, Calgary, 2.63, 27th, 46-25-11, Yes

You'll notice some repeat offenders on this list(Calgary, New Jersey, Boston, NEW YORK RANGERS). This is clearly an indication that a defensively minded team can succeed in the league.

Cheer up, the Rangers will be fine.

Still Picture Time!

From ontheforecheck.com



Three things:

1. "Detroit defenseman overwhelms Preds"

Wow. Pavel Datsyuk is a center. Yes, he is very good defensively, but he's a center.

2. "Datsyuk shows his rare offense"

Datsyuk's point/games played totals the last six seasons:
2009/10: 70pts/80gp
2008/09: 97/81
2007/08: 97/82
2006/07: 87/79
2005/06: 87/75
2003/04: 68/75

3. "Usually a set-up man, Pavel Datsyuk suddenly has turned into quite a goal scorer."

I understand what they mean. He's racks up the assists every year. You know what else he does? He scores a decent chunk of goals. His goal totals the last six seasons: 27, 32, 31, 27, 28, 30. I wouldn't consider that "rare." In fact, only fifteen players have scored more goals than Datsyuk since 2003/04.

Wow.