In a spirited first game back from break, the Rangers fell to the Florida Panthers by a score of 4-3. Despite a late Chris Kreider goal, the Rangers just could not generate enough momentum in the third to get back in the game they let slip away to the prowl of the Panthers. Lots to take away from this one as the Rangers certainly had some positives with the negatives. The scoring chances were there however Sergei Bobrovski was equal to the chances, coming up tall when needed, especially on a partial breakaway from Zibanejad and a cross ice dish to Gauthier.
The game got off to a start in the Rangers favor as Artemi Panarin put one past his buddy after pulling off a highlight reel move to make one of the leagues best defenseman look helpless. A front heavy game on the shots on goal tally, the Rangers outshot the Cats 15-12 as Florida continued to build up on them. That type of play paid off in the second when Anton Lundell found a puck in front off a perfect dish from Gustav Forsling to tie the game up at one. About seven minutes later, Mika Zibanejad found the back of the net off a Panarin pass for his eighth of the season and Panarin's 25th assist on the year.
In an all around physical game, the Panthers never let up and showed it was only a matter of time for them to really come alive and take this game away from the Blueshirts. About six minutes into the third Mackenzie Weegar let a slap shot go that found the back of the net for his first goal of the season. Not too long after that, Carter Verhaeghe let a shot go through Adam Fox, off Igor Shesterkin for a goal the Rangers net minder would've liked to have back to give the Panthers their first lead of the night. If history has taught us anything it would be to expect a goal from a former Blueshirt and that's exactly what happened as Duclair let a quick shot go to give Florida an insurance goal, putting the Rangers in quite a hole.
With less than a minute to go, Chris Kreider did what he does best to bring his team within one for his nineteenth goal of the season off a Kaapo Kakko shot. Unfortunately, it would be too little too late for the Rangers who struggled to generate possession after the goal as time would wind down and send the Rangers off with a loss in their first game since the 17th. With that in mind, you can't be too mad about the loss. You're not going to win every night and it's especially sensible for the team to have some rust to shake off after such a long break. It wasn't a perfect game on either end but Florida was able to maintain momentum and play their game.
So, what worked and what went wrong? Well first off, Artemi Panarin certainly seems to be doing just fine in his return not only from the break but from the minor injury he received before hand. A goal and an assist on the night made for him and Zibanejad to be the Rangers most notably effective players. Going off that, it's also good for the Rangers that Zibanejad scored in the first game back as they are going to need him to step up and score goals like he knows how to in the back half of the season here. As for the rest of the team, Kaapo Kakko had a solid night as did Dryden Hunt and the fourth line as a whole. As for the rest of the group, there's certainly work to be done.
First and foremost, the Libor Hajek experiment needs to come to an end. On a personal side, I'm sure he's a great kid, he seems like it, he seems to go into work everyday with the right attitude, however it's just not going to work out here. If you can trade him for anything you have to pull the trigger at this point. Even if he doesn't feel it, a change of scenery may be in his best interest as it's pretty clear he's not going to lock into this groups defensive core down the road, let alone right now. With Zac Jones now in the mix as a result of the taxi squad, there's no reason not to give him another look as he's led the Wolf Pack on the back end and has proven he can play at the NHL level.
All around defensively, the Rangers had room for improvement. I hate to nit pick the Trouba-Miller pair as they already get an unnecessary amount of speculation but there were certainly moments throughout the night where they could've made better decisions, especially on those shifts that resulted in goals for Florida. If it wasn't already evident how important Ryan Lindgren is to this team I'm sure it's clear now. Adam Fox still played hockey like Adam Fox does however putting extra responsibility on his plate pairing him with Libor Hajek isn't beneficial for anybody. I thought Nils had a couple of solid moments and Nemeth looked better than he did recently but in general the group has to be better, especially against offensively powered teams like Florida.
Aside from that Carter Verhaeghe goal, I thought Shesterkin played well. There's only so much you can ask from the guy who is just coming off injury himself, seeing his first start since the beginning of December. The Rangers have a hop and a skip ahead of them to get to their next opponent just a couple hours north of Sunrise. They'll take on the back to back Stanley Cup defending champs in Tampa Bay on the road Friday night before hosting the Lightning again at home Sunday afternoon. Barclay Goodrow will get his first crack at his former team where he won his two championships as he and the rest of the Rangers will look to get back on track and prove they can skate with the top teams in the league.
Chris Feldman
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