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All of a sudden the Rangers are a ‘disaster in the making’

The good news is that nobody’s saying the Rangers are due for a regression.

The bad news is they’ve already regressed.

We direct you to this post, published Nov. 24, when the Rangers were sitting pretty at 16-3-2:

The Rangers’ PDO is an NHL-high 107.1, per war-on-ice.com.

The next highest belongs to Ottawa, at 102.7.

Now, granted, given the quality of their goaltending and the way some of their forwards can shoot the puck, nobody should be surprised if the Rangers continue to have a high PDO. They led the NHL last year, finishing at 101.7.

But when it comes to PDO, there’s high and there’s high. Right now, the Rangers are fully in italicized territory. The question isn’t whether they can sustain it; they can’t. It’s what happens when it comes back down to earth, or at least within orbit.

The Rangers are 2-6-2 since we wrote that. Their PDO (combined shooting and save percentage) still leads the NHL, but it’s fallen all the way to 102.9, per war-on-ice.com.

Today, they waived veteran center Jarret Stoll.

Also today? This New York Post headline: “Why the Rangers seemingly are a disaster in the making.”

Now, to be fair, the Rangers have been without two of their key players, Derek Stepan and Kevin Klein. The former is their best two-way center, the latter one of their most dependable defensemen. A “disaster in the making” may be a bit harsh.

But it’s funny how, all of a sudden, a lot more people are willing to concede there might be some issues with this roster, to the point where sentiment may actually have swung too far to the negative.

The Rangers host the red-hot Oilers Tuesday.

Hey, remember when the Oilers were terrible?

If we recall, it was right around the time the Rangers were amazing.