Fox becoming bigger threat for Rangers by embracing shoot-first mentality

GREENBURGH, N.Y. -- Adam Fox ran a give and go with Vincent Trocheck and got the puck back high above the circles with time, space and a shooting lane.

You could sense everyone in the building waiting for the New York Rangers defenseman to make a pass. That's Fox's bread and butter, his deception with the puck, the ability to thread it through a lane nobody else saw so somebody else can score.

"But when you see the puck go in a few times you get a little more confidence in shooting it," Fox said.

So he did, and he scored on a 27-foot blocker-side wrist shot 36 seconds into overtime against the Philadelphia Flyers at Madison Square Garden on March 26.

He has 12 goals in 38 games since Jan. 6. That's as many goals as he scored in 82 games last season.

"When they're going in, I'm looking to shoot," Fox said.

Fox has been looking to shoot more since he scored on a one-timer from the blue line against the Montreal Canadiens on Jan. 6.

He has 78 shots on goal in the past 38 games, an average of 2.05 per game, up from the 1.55 he averaged in his first 27 games this season and the 1.88 per game he was averaging through 312 career regular-season games through Jan. 5.

Fox had six shots on goal in a 5-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday, tying his high for a single NHL regular-season game (six times previously).

Not coincidentally, Fox has an NHL career-high 15 goals in 65 games this season, tied for sixth among the League's defensemen.

He has 66 points, putting him on track to be a point-per-game player for the first time in his five NHL seasons, and the Rangers, who play the New Jersey Devils at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday (7 p.m. ET; MAX, truTV, TNT), are first in the Metropolitan Division and leading the race for the Presidents' Trophy with 104 points (50-21-4) in 75 games.

"He's been really clean, really confident with the puck, demanding it more and shooting it a lot more," Rangers defenseman Braden Schneider said of Fox. "When you have the talent he has and the smarts he has and you start shooting more, it's special. You add more confidence and a shot mindset, it's pretty impressive."

Fox's shot mindset has catapulted his game to a higher level than it was at before and after sustaining a lower-body injury against the Carolina Hurricanes on Nov. 2 that kept him out for 10 games.

He had 11 points (three goals, eight assists) in 10 games before the injury, but only 15 shots on goal. He had no goals, 13 assists and 27 shots on goal in his first 17 games back in the lineup.

Fox has 42 points (12 goals, 30 assists) in 38 games since.

"His authority out on the ice and the way that he attacks the game, you see right now that he's on point with his skating, his puck decisions, his puck movement, his shot, his attacking the game," Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. "There's been a real uptick in the way he's playing. It's visible when you watch him play. He just seems more on point."

Fox said he is consciously attempting to shoot more.

"'Lavy' said something at the start of the year, that if you shoot 10 percent on the year and you take 100 shots you get 10 goals, but if you take 200 shots you get 20 goals, so the more pucks you deliver, the better," he said. "For me it's when the opportunity presents itself. I don't want to ever force it, but I definitely want to be a threat shooting the puck."

He has a 15.4 percent shooting percentage since Jan. 6 and 12.5 percent for the season. He had a 6.6 percent shooting percentage in his first four seasons, with a high of 7.5 percent last season, when he scored 12 goals on 159 shots in 82 games.

"When you go a stretch without scoring you sometimes lose that little bit of confidence like you're never going to get one," Fox said. "Then in Montreal, you get one bounce from the point and then it kind of seems like the puck is bouncing your way. I had a goal in Washington off the defender's foot right back to me on net."

Fox didn't have that opportunistic feel for several weeks after coming back from his lower-body injury. It was the first time in his career when an injury took its toll on him. He played 285 out of a possible 290 games in his first four seasons.

"I wanted to come back and be simple," he said. "I didn't want to come in and give up odd-man rushes or be forcing offense. We were still winning when I came back so playing that simple game, I didn't want to change anything. Definitely it was an adjustment curve for me to try to play the same way but also not force anything."

Said Laviolette, "I don't think his game was bad at that point, but maybe now because it's later in the season, starting to close in on the playoffs, down the stretch here, his game has elevated."

That's measurable in Fox's production, including his four game-winning goals since Jan. 6, the last being that overtime goal against the Flyers eight days ago.

"Just a really nice shot post and in," defenseman Ryan Lindgren said. "Obviously he's a pass-first guy for the most part, but when he starts shooting it more, guys get to the net and the other team has to respect that more."

That kind of decisiveness in his approach to shooting has carried through Fox's entire game, Laviolette said.

The coach cited a goal Fox scored against the Penguins on March 16 as an example.

Fox got the puck off a rush play in the lower part of the right face-off circle, dragged it around defenseman Marcus Pettersson and moved the puck to his backhand to quickly shoot it high into the top left corner over goalie Tristan Jarry's blocker.

"He attacked the ice first," Laviolette said. "It wasn't about just getting a shot from the point, walking in and shooting it. He had to get a play on the rush on the backside and then he had to make a hard move to the middle and put it to his backhand. So there was more to it, and that decisiveness inside of his offensive instincts, that's been really good."