Jericho's Adam Fox quietly having solid season for Rangers

Quietly, Adam Fox is having a superb season.

The Rangers’ No. 1 defenseman, who grew up in Jericho, is piling up points at a record rate this season. His assist in Saturday’s 4-3 win over the Kraken was his 20th in 18 games this season. That made him the fastest Rangers defenseman to get 20 assists in a season, breaking the mark set by Brian Leetch, who did it in his first 19 games in 2000-01.

Fox’s 22 points (two goals, 20 assists) going into Monday’s game against the Oilers made him the Rangers’ leading scorer, and had him third in the league in scoring by defensemen, behind Edmonton’s Evan Bouchard and Minnesota’s Quinn Hughes. And his 22 points in 18 games had him on a pace to score 103 points this season, which would be a career high – by far – and would break Leetch’s team record for points by a defenseman, which is currently 102.

“I feel good,’’ Fox told Newsday in a one-on-one interview last month. “I think … it's easy to judge a game on [points] production. I think for me, I've just been feeling good about my overall game of creating offense for us, trying to defend hard, and … yeah, personally, I feel pretty good where my game's at.”

And the thing is, all those offensive numbers don’t take into account what Fox, 28, is doing at the defensive end, where coach Mike Sullivan has said repeatedly he is always underrated. Entering Monday, his 30 blocked shots were tied for second on the team with Marcus Pettersson, behind Fox’s defense partner Vladislav Gavrikov’s 37.

At 5-11 and 184 pounds, Fox is undersized for a defenseman. He’s also not the fastest skater, nor does he have the hardest shot. According to NHL Edge stats, his top speed this season has been 20.88 miles per hour, and his hardest shot this season has been recorded at 82.77 miles per hour , both of which are below the 50th percentile in the league. But he has an innate ability to see things on the ice that not everybody does, and to anticipate where the puck is going. That allows him to break up plays on defense, and create them on offense.

“His ability to anticipate on the defensive side of the puck … just knowing where the puck's going before it goes there, I don't know that we have anybody on our team that's as good at it as Foxy is,’’ Sullivan said last week. “He just has the ability, his recognition skills, [to know] where the puck's going, where people are on the rink, and how to shut down windows of opportunity. He has a great stick. He has great hand-eye coordination. … But I think his intelligence is his greatest asset on both sides of the puck. He sees the game so well, and I think that's what allows him to be effective.”

Fox said he isn’t bothered by the fact his defensive game is usually overlooked, and the perception that he’s an all-offense defenseman.

“There's always going to be perceptions of players, but I think for me, every team I've been on, I’ve got to try and earn a coach's trust, and try and get relied upon in [key] situations,’’ he said. “And so, yeah, I think I've just tried to prove what I could do defensively. And obviously, sometimes when you're a smaller defenseman and you get points … people just throw you in a [category]. But yeah, I don't know if it has ever really bothered me.”

He also denied that he is particularly motivated to show out this season, after being snubbed by the U.S. Olympic team last season.

“No, I think it's just important to me because I want to be the best player I could be,” he said. “You put a lot of work in in the summer … to get to a certain level and a certain standard that I hold myself to. So I just have always tried to push myself to be the best. And … other people's opinions and stuff, it's not really something that I could control. It's not something that's going to affect how I play.”

If anything, he said the team’s struggles last season, when it finished last in the Eastern Conference and missed the playoffs for a second consecutive year, is what drives him more.

“I think that's definitely more motivating,” he said. “That's not a fun environment to come to. Obviously, for me, just trying to stay healthy [after missing 27 games with injuries last seaso]  is the number one thing. … That was the most frustrating thing, more than anything else.”

He’s also keenly aware that, in the wake of the season-ending injury to goalie Igor Shesterkin, everyone else needs to a little bit more.

“When any team loses, arguably their best player, it's gonna affect their team in a certain way,” he said. “It's definitely on everyone to do a little more and step up a little bit.”

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.