The Rangers returned to action after a four day hiatus on a long weekend road trip through Montreal, Buffalo and Pittsburgh. The Rangers not only kick off the final quarter of the regular season with these games, but kick off a very difficult stretch of games as they will be quite busy through next week with plenty of hockey, including back-to-backs and unofficial mini-series’ against Metropolitan rivals. Through those three games, the Blueshirts managed to pick up five of six possible points which on paper, sounds pretty good. However, when you look at each game individually and consider how all three of them required overtime, there are certainly some areas this team needs to find a way to improve on ASAP. That being said, let’s recap each of the three games and take a brief look at a busy week ahead.
Mika March Continues in Shootout Win Against Canadiens
In a game that had fair reason to contain a little bit of rust, the Rangers got back on track with a pair of points in a shootout win over the Canadiens. It’s no secret Montreal is among the teams around the league currently having a bit of a rough go of things so this should have been the perfect game for the Rangers to ease back into after some time off. Nevertheless, things were not looking good right out the gate as Kaiden Guhle batted a Denis Gurianov shot past Shesterkin to make it a 1-0 game just 35 seconds in. Bit of a weird play but regardless, not how you want to start your first game back. Thankfully, the lead wouldn’t last too long as the hometown kid knotted things up on the power play just over two minutes later. Alexis Lafreniere would put a shot in as part of one of the new top power play units that seemed to be working pretty well.
The Rangers would get a second chance on the power play later in the period as Montreal was caught with too many men on the ice but couldn’t capitalize. With just under three minutes left in the first, Alex Belzile picked up his fourth of the season to regain Montreal’s lead, putting the Rangers behind to head into the first intermission. Wouldn’t be long into the second for Jacob Trouba to even things up at two with assists going to Artemi Panarin and Patrick Kane for his first point as a Ranger. Just over the midway point, Montreal got called for another penalty which hurt and helped the Rangers. Josh Anderson picked up a shorthanded goal to make it 3-2 but a minute later, Patrick Kane let a shot go that tied things up and gave him his first as a Blueshirt. A moment that was undoubtedly pretty special as his excitement was quite visible in his celebration.
A scoreless third brought this one to overtime which required a big penalty kill from the Rangers as Adam Fox was called for holding Nick Suzuki. A successful kill brought this one to the shootout where Mika Zibanejad had the lone answer for both teams, giving the Rangers the extra point they certainly needed. A far from perfect game by any means but in their first game in four days, you can cut them some slack. However the sloppy play would only become a consistent theme through the weekends back to back.
Panarin Calls Game in Overtime Win in Buffalo
Only took over sixty games into the season for the Rangers to play a team that resides in the same state as them but nevertheless, a timely first visit for the Blueshirts and a special one for Buffalo Native, Patrick Kane. A very similar showing as the game in Montreal as the Rangers played a bit on the sloppy side and seemed to barely keep up with a team that is way below them in the standings. After a scoreless, penalty-less first period, the Rangers kicked off the second with a penalty kill as Trouba was called for hooking. Despite out-shooting the Sabres, neither team really generated much in the early parts of the game but as play went on, Buffalo certainly picked up their offensive side.
After two periods of play, the Sabres were out-shooting the Rangers 19-12 and we had a tied game at one a piece. Jeff Skinner let a slap shot go on a beautiful passing play that started with Tage Thompson and came from Ilya Lyubushkin. Not long after, Patrick Kane celebrated his first visit to his hometown as a Ranger with his second goal in two games, sneaking a back hander past the goaltender with the most fun name in the league, Ukka-Pekka Luukonen. Another scoreless period followed as the offense picked up on both ends of the ice. Igor Shesterkin being the sole reason that this game didn’t have a very different outcome as the Sabres got a great deal of strong scoring chances.
To overtime we went and a hooking call on Rasmus Dahlin gave the Rangers a power play very early on. 50 seconds into the 4-on-3 man advantage, Adam Fox fed Artemi Panarin with a perfect pass that allowed him to bury to give the Rangers their second overtime win in two games. Igor Shesterkin was rightfully awarded the Broadway Hat following the win as this game never would have gotten to overtime without his efforts in keeping the puck out of the Rangers net.
Rangers Drop Intense Outing in Pittsburgh
Right back at it from Buffalo, the Rangers made their way to Pittsburgh for their first of three outings with the Penguins this week. Similarly to Buffalo, this would be the first meeting between the two this season but what made this one more significant was this was the first time these two teams would see each other since game seven of last season’s Eastern Conference Quarterfinals. Much has changed since that night and for Pittsburgh, the possibility of missing the playoffs for the first time in almost two decades lingers as the season continues to dwindle. That mixed with how little these teams like each other made for this to be quite the matchup with a playoff like feel.
The Penguins, who were 6-1-1 going into this one wasted no time taking control of this own and the Rangers were not doing themselves any favors. Three penalties within the first five minutes of the game gave the Penguins plenty of opportunities on the man advantage. For the most part, the Rangers did a good job killing them off but Rickard Rackell was able to get the Penguins on the board with a rocket of a slap shot off a nice pass from Sidney Crosby. Once things settled down and the teams got back to 5v5, Barclay Goodrow put away a rebound in front off a Jimmy Vesey chance to tie the game up at one. One thing that certainly became a problem for the Blueshirts throughout this one was their top players not performing. Niko Mikkola and the Rangers fourth line were without question the players that played the best for New York throughout the night.
Tied at one after two, it would be a pretty quiet first half of the second period. The Rangers were struggling to get anything generated and a lot of that had to do with a lacking presence of their top players. Kane and Panarin specifically are still trying to do too much, forcing plays, turning the puck over way too much. Wouldn’t take long into the new period for the Penguins to capitalize as Jason Zucker, who was undoubtedly one of their most effective players on the night, made it a 2-1 game. As the period went on, things got more and more chippy and sure enough, Pittsburgh’s favorite Ranger laid out one of his infamous center ice hits.
Now anyone who has ever played the game of hockey should understand that Alex Nylander was set up for failure as the recipient of that hit. Jeff Petry gave him a blue line to blue line pass right up the middle which especially with Trouba on the ice, was a stupid and dangerous play for Petry to make. By the time Nylander received the puck, Trouba was right there. Even if Trouba didn’t prepare to deliver the hit, Nylander would have ran right into him given the nature of the play. So sure enough, Trouba laid Nylander out with a huge, CLEAN, center ice hit which sent Penguins fans who were already booing him all night into even more of a frenzy. Sure enough, Evgeni Malkin went after Trouba, cross-checking him in the process. Because it was a clean hit, Trouba did not receive a penalty and Malkin was sent off for retaliating. The amount of times I and Rangers fans everywhere have had to explain that is bonkers.
That would just be the tip of the iceberg (put intended) as Chris Kreider would go hard to the net a minute later that led to another little scrum that gave him and Marcus Pettersson coincidental minors. After a pretty lifeless first half of the game for New York, there started to be some fire behind their play. Halfway through the third, Chris Kreider let a shot go that flew past Tristan Jarry to tie the game up at two. That goal would stand as the period's only goal which led to the Rangers going to their third overtime in three games. An overtime that would not go in the Rangers favor and is directly a result of a stupid penalty from Artemi Panarin who probably had his worst game of the season.
In the Rangers own zone after getting tied up with Malkin, Panarin straight up tripped him in such a fashion that no official would ever not call a penalty on that play. Pittsburgh went to the power play and Kris Letang let a rocket from the point go to beat Halak who, similar to Shesterkin the night before, more or less kept the Rangers alive in this one. While they still got a point and were coming off a back to back with travel, the Rangers needed to be better in this one. We’re coming down to the wire here and with less than 20 games left on the year, they can’t afford to give up these games, especially against divisional opponents. Not to mention the Penguins were also coming off a back to back which means travel aside, they were just as tired as the Rangers likely were.
Now there was some uproar on the Twitter following the game as Larry Brooks, longtime writer covering the Rangers with the NY Times, Tweeted in frustration about Jaro Halak refusing the media following the game. A decision Igor Shesterkin similarly tends to make resulting in the media rarely being able to talk to the Rangers goalies. I understand Brooks’ frustration as I do the player’s not wanting to talk. The last thing anyone wants to do after a poor performance is talk about it but at least with Halak, he should be given the benefit of the doubt. For starters, nothing about that loss was his fault. Second, he’s been around the league for a long time, he’s certainly toward the end of his career, he’s likely only going to be a Ranger for however long the season goes on, if he doesn’t want to talk, he should have earned the right by now to decide not to.
Vince Mercogliano, another beat writer for the Rangers followed up Brooks’ Tweets by saying it’s not just the goalies, that other players often refuse the media as well. It’s a tough call because everyone should have the right to decide whether they want to speak or not but at same time, especially for players that are going to be Rangers for a long time, they should know that it’s a part of the job and can’t permanently avoid it. They should be able to hold themselves accountable and not to single out Panarin, but when you have a game like he did last night, you should be able to answer a couple questions and say “hey, that was on me, I have to be better and I’m going to be better.” 99% of media answers from hockey players are so generic and cliche to begin with, just put on a brave face and give them something. Not to mention, with how many young players the Rangers have, it isn’t setting a great example for them by refusing the media more often than not.
Just my two cents but nevertheless, the Rangers have more important things to worry about as they kick off a five game home-stand this week with Washington, Pittsburgh twice, Nashville and Carolina. None of those games are going to be an easy pair of points so whatever kinks are going on with the team’s game, need to be worked out sooner rather than later. Some things to keep an eye on will certainly be the status of Ryan Lindgren as well as the overall line combinations that have been juggled a fair amount in these last couple games. The longer this group doesn’t get things sorted out, the more cause for concern that will grow as the importance of each passing game grows more and more.
Chris Feldman
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