The Rangers struggled to keep up with the Penguins in their final meeting of the season, falling to them by the score of 5-2. It was expected that this team wouldn't come out at full force having just recently been vaccinated and quite frankly, it was obvious in their play. Once again, the Penguins out shot them, registering nine shots on goal very early into the first period, controlled the Rangers in the face off circle as well as other areas of the ice.
Radim Zohorna got the scoring start for the Penguins about six and a half minutes into the first. In what would become a more or less uneventful first period, the Penguins would hold onto their one goal lead to go into the second. The Rangers power play found themselves in action early in the period and with the second unit out there it was Colin Blackwell who got them on the board for his 11th of the season. What a story this kid has been for us this season, signed as a depth forward, he's been such a joy to watch all season and has almost completely taken over Jesper Fast's role on this team. Unfortunately, the momentum wouldn't carry and Kris Letang would regain the lead for Pittsburgh about a minute and a half later.
Halfway through the period it was Evan Rodrigues converting on a Pittsburgh power play to make it 3-1. To the third we go, the Rangers began showing some signs of life, playing with spurts of urgency but unfortunately, it wouldn't be enough. Jason Zucker put the dagger in this one on a goal I'm sure Igor Sheshterkin would like to have back to make it 4-1. Kevin Rooney found the back of the net and Adam Fox found his 32nd assist to make it 4-2 with lots of time left in the period. Plenty of time for a comeback but again, the waves of urgency were inconsistent and not enough to get anything going. With a little over two minutes to go, DQ pulled Sheshterkin and our continued failure of getting anything generated with the extra attacker continued and Mark Jankowski put one in the empty net to put this game to bed.
Luckily and maybe unluckily, the Rangers don't have a long wait before getting back at it. They'll take on their rivals on Long Island tonight with Alexandar Georgiev getting the start in goal. Not a surprise there, Georgiev has statistically done well against the Islanders and with the back to back games it makes sense to split the starts. Georgiev hasn't played in quite a while and has been questionable at times this season. Look for him to want to have a strong game, proving himself and that he is still a capable goalie for this team.
It's a big weekend coming up for the Rangers as well as the rest of the league. With the trade deadline on Monday this will be the last couple games for teams to decide what their plan is for the final stretch of the season. The Rangers will still remain hopefully despite the sight of playoffs becoming more and more distant with us not generating enough wins and Boston not losing enough. They aren't a big name in the trade deadline conversation but never doubt that Jeff Gorton could have a trick or two up his sleeve.
He might look to sell but it's hard to really picture them getting rid of their only player over the age of thirty in Brendan Smith who will be an unrestricted free agent after this season. Aside from him there's not much trade bait on this team, will definitely be interesting to see if any moves are made at all. There's no doubt Gorton will at least revisit Tony DeAngelo and see if any team has interest in taking on the problematic defender.
Hopefully the Blueshirts will bounce back against the Islanders tonight as they kick off one of two on Long Island this weekend before starting their mini series against the New Jersey Devils. Quinn got Howden back in the line up yesterday, would really like to see him come out for Julien Gauthier but knowing Quinn and his tendencies, that probably won't happen. On the bright side for Rangers fans, Zac Jones looked incredible for UMASS in the Frozen Four last night, stay positive because the future is so bright for this team.
Chris Feldman
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