Rangers aren't too concerned with slow start by Mika Zibanejad

PITTSBURGH – It’s been a sluggish start to the season for Rangers' top-line center Mika Zibanejad.

The 30-year-old Swede entered Wednesday’s game against the banged-up Penguins without a point in his previous four games and just one assist in his previous seven. Zibanejad had two goals and 10 points in the first 16 games, a pace that would produce 10 goals and 51 points over the course of an 82-game season, numbers well below his career averages.

But with the Rangers taking a 12-3-1 record into Wednesday, no one seemed to want to spend a lot of time worrying about Zibanejad’s abnormally low scoring totals.

“I've said this before: I think that everything, through the course of the year, is a little bit cyclical,’’ Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said after Wednesday’s morning skate at PPG Paints Arena. “There's peaks and valleys through the course of a year. I'm not concerned … eventually, those pucks will start to go in.’’

To be fair, the analytics – and even the eye test – suggest that Zibanejad has played fine. His line most often matches up against the other team’s first line, and in 5-on-5 action, the line of Zibanejad, left wing Chris Kreider, and whatever right wing they were with at the moment had been on for four goals for and three against. They had generated more shots on goal (87 for, 68 against), more scoring chances (81-79), and more high-danger chances (39-27) than their opponents, according to Natural Stat Trick.

Zibanejad’s faceoff win rate of 52.6% entering Wednesday was also higher than he’s ever finished a season with, meaning his line generally starts possessions with the puck more often than not.

So the evidence suggests that Zibanejad, who was plus-5 entering Wednesday, is at least playing other teams’ top centers to a stalemate, if not slightly winning his matchup.

But still … two goals? In 16 games?

“All I can try to do is shoot, keep shooting, keep shooting, keep shooting,’’ Zibanejad said. “Eventually one will go in somehow. I don't care how. But it's always frustrating when the puck doesn't go in and you have to talk about it. But I try not to think about it and just go play.’’

Zibanejad, who had 39 goals and 91 points last season, played his 500th game with the Rangers Nov. 12 against Columbus. He had scored 206 goals and 465 points in 502 games with the Blueshirts before Wednesday, an average of 33.6 goals and 75.9 points per season. In his 13-year NHL career (he started with Ottawa before being traded to the Rangers in 2016), he had 270 goals and 616 points in 783 games, averages of 28.3 goals and 64.5 points.

He’s also historically been a streaky player who’s been known to score a lot of goals over a short period of time, like in the COVID-19-shortened season of 2019-20, when he scored a career-high 41 goals in 57 games. The Rangers played 70 games that season, which was paused in March because of the pandemic. Zibanejad scored goals in each of the last six games – 11 total, including a team-record-tying five in a 6-5 overtime win over Washington – and had goals in 12 of the last 13, a total of 17 in the span.

So there’s every reason to believe that once Zibanejad does start scoring, his numbers will come back to the range where they always seem to end up. And for now, Zibanejad and the Rangers can trust that is what will happen. And try not to worry about it.

“It's one of those things where I think, the more you think about it, the further away it is,’’ he said.

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.