The Rangers saw their six-game win streak come to a crashing halt yesterday, allowing five goals in the third to fall 6-3 to the Blackhawks. New York failed to convert on a four-minute power play in the first period, setting the tone for the contest. Leading 1-0 after one, a goal allowed in the last minute of the second and two in the first two minutes of the third sealed the team's fate. The Rangers head to Columbus for a matchup against the Blue Jackets.

Game recap:


The Rangers dominated most of the first period, but initially failed on a two-minute power 6:42 into the first, but scored a little over a minute later. New York took that 1-0 lead thanks to the KZB line. Good passing resulted in a Mika Zibanejad scoring his ninth of the season. But despite carrying play, Chicago made it out of the initial stanza down 1-0 thanks to killing off a four-minute, double-minor to John Hayden, during which the PP failed to generate much sustained pressure. When it did, Corey Crawford stood tall.

Chicago adjusted to the various neutral zone styles deployed by New York in the first and took advantage of having the last change to flip the script in the second period. Henrik Lundqvist was brilliant for the first 19 minutes of the stanza. But a relatively weak goal by Alex DeBrincat allowed the Blackhawks to enter the third period with momentum even at one. Interesting that the whistle blew, yet play wasn't stopped before the goal crossed the goal line.

In the third, the roof caved in. Ryan McDonagh had his pocket picked behind the net, Nick Holden chased behind the net, leaving the slot open. The KZB line failed to cover the front of the net and Artem Anisimov got his first of three in the period. Down 2-1, Lundqvist made the first save but left a deep rebound in the slot. Kevin Shattenkirk reacted late and was beaten to the puck by John Hayden, who put it past Lundqvist between the right arm and body. A little more than three minutes later, Chicago made it 4-1. after retaining possession in the offensive zone, Cody Franson's shot was saved, but Anisimov got inside position and held off Marc Staal, who was on with McDonagh, to get two shots off. The first was saved, but AA put the second one past Hank, ending his night, as he was pulled for Ondrej Pavelec. That was more of a statement to the team than blame for Lundqvist on what has transpired the first 5:14 of the stanza.

New York rallied to cut the deficit to one. First, after having a goal waved off due to a whistle - nice to have that happen for Chicago, seeing how first goal they scored wasn't overturned, Kevin Hayes scored after a pair of short cross-slot passes. Then Rick Nash beat Crawford on a relatively weak goal to make 4-3. David Desharnais almost tied it on a wraparound, but Gustav Forsling was able to get his stick in the way to prevent the goal. Then, Chicago sealed it on Anisimov's hat trick tally. McDonagh and Shattenkirk got caught deep and the Blackhawks broke out. A cross-ice pass to open space in the neutral zone was corralled by AA, who beat everyone to the slot and deflected the puck past Pavelec. To me, Pavelec was way too deep in his crease. If he is up a foot higher, he can either stone the shot or deflect the pass with his stick. but deep, he had no chance. Jonathan Toews empty netter closed out the scoring.

Visual representation of poor puck possession:

From #NYR @ #Blackhawks tonight, at 5v5. 👀the bottom of that chart pic.twitter.com/fSivgWZkgV

— Shayna (@hayyyshayyy) November 16, 2017

Hard to win when the worst nine on that graph play for the Rangers, Staal and Kampfer were woof. Why I expect Brendan Smith back in for the game against Columbus. As we discussed dueing the win streak, New York was carried by its power play and they struggled 5v5. That clearly was evident last night, where in a game the PP was shut down, they weren't able to score enough to win. But, the defensive breakdowns really were the killer, since on goals 2-4; number one was on Hank and the fifth came due to chasing to tie, mistakes in the own zone led to each of the three goals. AV didn't do a great job of adjusting to what Chicago did through the neutral zone, but some of that was on transitions, so not all on the changes the Blackhawks. He did shuffle d-pairings, but little really worked. aA stinker was bound to happen, unfortunately, it resulted in a loss, but hopefully a learning point for the team.

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