The New York Rangers started the season off in style, crushing the Pittsburgh Penguins 6-0, which included 5 5v5 goals and not one powerplay goal. It’s only one game, but it’s a stark contrast to how the Rangers looked last season. Again it’s only one game, but last night was a microcosm of things to come with a healthy Filip Chytil. We beat the drum here that he’s far more important than people realize, and hopefully last night shows why.
It’s easy to look at Chytil’s scoring lines and assume he’s just a typical third liner. But the reality is so, so much more. Chytil’s goal last night aside, his mere presence in the lineup brings both balance to the overall lineup and much needed scoring depth in the bottom six. On paper that sounds nice, but seeing it play out on the ice is a whole other story. It’s something we saw last night, as a healthy Filip Chytil made matchups a nightmare for the Penguins.
As Tyler noted in last night’s recap, the third line of Chytil, Will Cuylle, and Kaapo Kakko outshot the Penguins 12-3, feasting on bottom of the roster competition. Chytil got the goal, Cuylle had a goal disallowed, and Kakko got a breakaway chance. They weren’t just shot quantity merchants. They were getting high danger chances off the rush, forcing turnovers, and pinning the Penguins in their own end.
What was the theme last year? Sustained offensive zone pressure?
The Rangers have not been a good 5v5 team over the last decade, propped up mostly on elite goaltending and finishing talent. That has been for a variety of reasons, but through the first 10 games last season, before Chytil was hurt, the Rangers were actually a solid 5v5 team. So a healthy Filip Chytil obviously matters. But why?
From a systems standpoint, Chytil does something on breakouts and zone exits that the Rangers lacked from the center position: An offensively minded player that circles back to the dots to give the defense an outlet pass to drive play up the ice. For the most part, the Rangers lived and died last year by the stretch pass. Chytil circling back gives a low risk, high reward outlet to drive play.
Those little things show up in Chytil’s overall play driving ability, notably defensive. It sounds counterintuitive, since we are talking zone exits and driving offense, but focusing on quantity of shots against. Simply put, if he’s driving play up the ice and pinning the opposition deep, he’s limiting quality against since his line has the puck in the offensive zone. It’s all connected.
Aside: The above is a three year impact chart, since 2023-2024 was a wash for him.
A healthy Filip Chytil at 3C makes that third line into a scoring line that draws favorable matchups. Those matchups are because the Vincent Trocheck line gets the opposition’s top defensive players, and the Mika Zibanejad line gets the shutdown responsibilities for the Rangers, matching up against Sidney Crosby last night. Zibanejad’s role is more of a Sasha Barkov-lite role, and not a purely offensive role.
So how does a healthy Filip Chytil improve the Zibanejad line’s results?
Last season, Mika Zibanejad was the subject of a lot of hate. He wasn’t producing 5v5, and he pulled a disappearing act against both Carolina and Florida after a strong series against Washington. Expecting more from him is fair, after all he’s commanding close to $10 million annually, but the criticism was a tad overblown.
Zibanejad has always been a strong two-way player, especially when he’s with Chris Kreider. What’s hurt Zibanejad is he’s never had strong play driving numbers, and this is where we get into the grey area of possession metrics vs. context. The context is Zibanejad’s matchups, but if he’s in that role, it’s fair to expect better results. That’s where a healthy Filip Chytil comes to mind.
As long as the third line is scoring and the Rangers are getting balanced offense up and down the lineup, it’s easy to miss what Zibanejad is doing out there. Matched up against Sidney Crosby most of last night, he limited one of the best players in the game to 2 shots on goal while winning 64% of the faceoffs. Zibanejad may not have been on the score sheet, but Kreider (goal) and Reilly Smith (assist) both contributed at 5v5.
A healthy Filip Chytil simply gives the Rangers more scoring options, which in turn likely leads to a bit more attention from the competition, which frees up the Zibanejad line a bit more. It’s a constant cycle of matchups and deciding which line will be given the depth matchups, especially in away games.
A healthy Filip Chytil brings more to the lineup than just a steady third line. It balances the lineup, makes the Rangers far more difficult to match up against, and gives a bit more freedom to Mika Zibanejad’s line to focus on shutting down the opposition’s top scorers. If Zibanejad is shutting down the Crosby’s and the other elite talent in the NHL while scoring on the powerplay, is anyone really complaining?
That’s what a healthy Filip Chytil brings to the Rangers.
