It shouldn’t be too big of a surprise that the Rangers, who were in the second half of their second back to back since last weekend, fell to the Colorado Avalanche who are first in the league for goals for in games played by a score of 7-3. Not only was this the second half of a back to back but the Rangers were in Chicago the night before, a city located in a different time zone. You have to think the Rangers weren’t rolling back into Manhattan until close to three or four in the morning before having to be right back at the Garden later that afternoon. There was one bright side in this game but other than that, the Rangers will want to forget all about this one and get ready for Buffalo on Friday night.
Adam Huska, who made his first NHL career start was put in a tough spot going into tonight’s game. Having never played in the league before, he was asked to play with a tired team in front of him against the team with the most goals per game in the league. One that has Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen as their top three forwards. Overall, I thought Huska did everything he could. Sure some of those goals looked a little bad but he stopped 19 shots in the first period alone, just one shy of 40 for the game as a whole. Many of the goals were as a result of lazy defense, shots he didn’t see or just bad luck. No reason to put any blame on him and you have to give him some credit for having a 30+ save night in his debut, even if it was a loss.
As I mentioned earlier, there was one bright side and that was another first in Nils Lundkvist putting an absolute rocket of a shot top shelf for his first NHL goal. For a pretty mild mannered kid, you have to love seeing how excited he got, especially considering he fell over in the process. Kaapo Kakko rushing to grab the puck for him was about as wholesome as it gets in pretty much the only Rangers highlight for the entire night. You have to think this was coming as Lundkvist has had a pretty good showing as of late, looking more and more comfortable with the puck every night.
Jacob Trouba had to have made some kind of history as you’d be hard pressed to find another player in NHL history that had Gordie Howe hat tricks in back to back nights. In fact, with last night's fight, Jacob Trouba actually tied Gordie Howe for the number of career Gordie Howe Hat Tricks at two. (Thanks Stevie V for that fun stat!) Trouba laid another night train level hit upon Nathan MacKinnon that left him shaken up and leaving the ice. I’m not sure if Trouba would’ve dropped his gloves as quickly as he did had he not had to answer the bell for a similar hit the night before but before you knew it he was fighting Gabriel Landeskog, who top line forward aside is just as tough a customer. Five each for fighting and the Rangers ended up with a power play for the instigator.
Rantanen got the game going with Colorado’s first goal then two minutes later Jacob Trouba scored his goal off a good slap shot. Lundkvist gave the Rangers their first and only lead of the game toward the end of the first. About five minutes into the second, MacKinnon fooled Huska on a partial breakaway, poking the puck through Huska’s legs as soon as he attempted to poke it from MacKinnon. Two minutes later, Kadri scored off a wrist shot and then Alex Newhook scored off a weird angle shot on the powerplay to make it 4-2.
Logan O’Connor would find a pair of goals within a span of 22 seconds to essentially end this game in the second period, one of which looked so good I actually thought it was MacKinnon initially. Filip Chytil would give the Rangers a lone spark over halfway through the third and Rantanen would score again to twist the knife in. I mentioned in my post game piece how the Avalanche are among the league's worst in the faceoff circle and the Rangers actually beat them in that category, winning 51 of 49% of draws.
While you never want to see your team lose, it’s hard to really be mad about this one. The Rangers have now played 25 games this season and that was only their fifth loss in regulation. With the great start the team has been off to this year, we haven’t really gotten to see how they bounce back after losing a game. It’ll be interesting to see how they collect themselves and come out against Buffalo on their ice Friday night. There’s no doubt Gallant will be stressing the importance of having a good game to follow a bad one as this team does not want to make a habit of dropping games.
There was talk about Shesterkin possibly being in consideration for the game in Buffalo but there hasn’t been any update on that front and frankly, I wouldn’t rush it. This isn’t the first time we’ve feared losing Igor to a bigger injury, why risk it? Give Georgiev another start, see how he does and if he has a good game, maybe even consider giving him Sunday’s game against Nashville as well. Like it or not, Georgiev is our number two right now and while Huska didn’t play awful, the seven goals doesn’t quite scream NHL ready. Best case scenario with Igor out is Georgiev plays well enough for a solid amount of time to reignite some interest from teams that may need a goalie. Regardless of who’s in net, look for the Rangers to have a big bounce back as they;ll be itching to get back in the winning column.
Update, I’ve been very busy with work, grad school, life, etc so I am just writing my post game piece at 2:15 on Thursday. Just checked twitter for the first time today and see the Rangers have recalled Keith Kinkaid and sent Greg McKegg to Hartford. Still plan to see Georgiev Friday night but the possibility of Kinkaid getting in the mix can’t be ruled out.
Chris Feldman
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