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In this edition of the hotstove, we share our thoughts on which teams have impressed us the least to date.
Todd Cordell
The New York Rangers and I’m not sure it is close.
They were as active as anyone this past summer, making no shortage of headline moves. The Rangers signed star winger Artemi Panarin in free agency. They acquired Jacob Trouba, fresh off a 50-point campaign, to help anchor the blueline. They brought in college standout Adam Fox. Oh, and they drafted Kaapo Kakko with the No. 2 pick.
Few teams added the kind of talent and potential the Rangers managed to bring in. And yet they’ve been nothing short of a disaster in the early going.
The Rangers rank dead last across the board with a 43.04 Corsi For%, 41.33 Scoring Chance For%, and 39.79 Expected Goals For%. They’re getting absolutely demolished at 5v5, and their inability to stay out of the box has made it awfully difficult to make up any ground on special teams.
Seven games is seven games but, for perspective of how awful this start is, the Rangers’ underlyings don’t hold a candle to last year’s Ottawa Senators team that won *checks notes* 29 games.
I thought the Rangers were somewhat overhyped – I predicted they’d finish 7th in the Metro – but not to this extent. I expected them to be competitive and they’ve been anything but.
James Tanner
The NHL's most disappointing team is the Tampa Bay Lightning. They have a .500 record, only 3 ROW in eight games while posting an ugly CF% in the mid 40s, which is sixth worst in the NHL. At even-strength they've allowed 20 more shots, and even with the 4th highest PDO in the league, they're not putting up a good record.
There were signs that they weren't as good as people thought - last year they scored on over 20% of their shots on the power-play, had a ridiculous record in 1 goal games (which are mostly random) and they had a back-up goalie who was almost out of the league go 21-5.
They aren't as bad as they seem, but they were never as good as they seemed either.
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